Ageism - The Acceptable Form of Discrimination in the Workplace

The issue of age discrimination in the workplace is nothing new. It has even become an acceptable practice. It is not hard to understand why in tough economic times an employer would want to downsize an employee who he is paying premium dollars to not only in salary but in benefits. There are laws in place against age discrimination but they are for the most part ineffectual. The federal law pertaining to age discrimination in employment is the ADEA of 1967. So you can see that this is not a new issue but with the baby boomers arriving at these tender ages it is becomming the number one problem facing older adults.

Employers view older workers as inflexible and untrainable in today's new technologies. Even when the older worker has proven themselves to be capable often times they are being "downsized" due to economic reasons only to be replaced by someone less than half their age. This is leaving a vast experience gap in the workforce. An older worker can apply for a job where his resume matches the job requirements exactly and still not get the job. They will get the ubiquitous letter stating that the job was given to someone who more closely matched the employers requirements. In other words, someone who was 20 to 30 years younger.

It is time for workers over 50 to become organized and march on Washington to draw attention to this situation. Oh, it is a well known situation but it is all too easy for our elected representatives to overlook. They are being re-elected well into their 80's so they don't see what is happening in the rest of society. They don't have to try to find health insurance once they've been downsized and can't find another job. They are making fat salaries so they haven't been hit by going from a six figure income to a paltry minimum wage job and still try to make their payments. Try talking to an attorney about an age discrimination lawsuit and they will just shake their heads and laugh and tell you that in reality it is almost impossible to prove.

There have been age discrimination lawsuits filed and won but the injured person still has not been able to collect any money from the offending employer. As older workers we must organize to accomplish our goals. Probably the best and biggest organization for those of us over 50 is the AARP. Their entire focust is the rights of older Americans in all walks of life. I would encourage everyone in their golden years to contact their state senators and representatives regarding this matter. It really is a matter that affects us all. The longer that older people continue to work the less they are using our depleting social security system as well. For this reason alone it should be of interest to older and younger Americans.