What Is Age Discrimination In The Workplace? [Examples & FAQs]

If you are concerned that you may be experiencing age discrimination in the workplace, you may be right. Here are 10 signs that your employer may be illegally discriminating against you because of your age.

1. Hearing Age-Related Comments or Insults

Employers or managers who make age-related remarks or speak to you in a demeaning tone may be hovering on the line of harassment. While not quite there yet, their behavior can signal a larger issue.

As reported by Time, “Even those oldest boomers not held back professionally because of age may experience something called micro-aggressions, which are ‘brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative slights and insults to the target person or group.’” This is according to research out of Columbia University.

2. Seeing a Pattern of Hiring Only Younger Employees

As previously mentioned, there is a pattern in Silicon Valley and the technology industry. The EEOC reports that older workers in technology roles experience significantly high rates of age discrimination, with 70% of IT staffers claiming to have witnessed or experienced it first-hand. In addition, 40% of older technology workers consider their age to be a liability to their career.

Below are the average ages for popular tech companies as reported by Smart Insights:

Company	Average Age
AOL	27
Facebook	28
LinkedIn	29
Salesforce	29
Google	30
Apple	31
Amazon	31
Yahoo	31
eBay	32
Adobe	33
Microsoft	33
Dell	36
IBM	38
Oracle	39
HP	39

Silicon Valley is not the only area where younger employees are hired over older employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the following median ages for a selection of industries:

Industry	Median Age
Hospitality	31
Wholesale & Retail	39
Construction	42
Professional & Business Services	42
Education	43
Financial	44
Manufacturing	44
Transportation & Utilities	45

If you notice an age-related hiring pattern at your company, you could be on to something. Many employers will never say it, but they may be specifically looking for younger workers. This is often due to unfounded misconceptions about ability, work pace, knowledge, and sociability.

An employer’s use of the term “overqualified” may be a sign of age discrimination. It is unlawful for an employer not to hire an experienced older person based solely on the assumption that they might become bored or dissatisfied and leave the job.

3. Getting Turned Down For a Promotion

If you have been turned down for a promotion that ended up going to a younger worker who was less qualified, you may have evidence of age discrimination. If you can show a pattern of older workers being overlooked for promotions that typically go to younger workers with no evidence of the decisions being based on merit, your case for age discrimination will gain a lot of clout.

What can you do if you have faced age discrimination? Get a free case assessment to learn your options.

4. Being Overlooked for Challenging Work Assignments

One way employers may attempt to force older employees out is by “lightening the load,” or removing challenging work and projects from their plate. This tactic frustrates and demoralizes the worker while making them look less useful and valuable to the broader organization. This perpetuates the myth that older workers are not as knowledgeable and are less capable.

5. Becoming Isolated or Left Out

Similar to the previous point, employers or managers may begin to remove you from meetings, leave you out of decisions, and may even isolate your desk location away from your department or group, thereby making it more difficult for you to contribute and be a valuable part of the team.

Going a step further, they may ask you to work from home or relocate you to a different office altogether — possibly even to another state or location that would cause a major disruption in your life.

6. Being Encouraged or Forced to Retire

Oftentimes companies will offer early retirement packages to older employees as an incentive to push them out. These packages are typically hard to turn down for employees. Even if an employee turns down a retirement package and the option to retire, there is no saying that the company will not go ahead and fire them anyway.

Similarly, although illegal today, some companies try to enact a mandatory retirement age. However, enforcing a mandatory retirement age is only legal in a limited number of specific professions, such as law enforcement and firefighting.

7. Experiencing Layoffs

Layoffs happen at companies of all shapes and sizes. But if your company is only laying off older employees, you may be able to prove age discrimination. Because layoffs require legalities, companies are typically smart enough to dilute layoff groups by including a sampling of younger employees in the mix as well.

8. Having Your Position Eliminated

This is an all-too-common practice at companies throughout the country: eliminating a role by changing the job title. If an employer says that your job is being eliminated but then hires a younger employee to work in the same capacity as you only with a different title, this is possible evidence of age discrimination.

9. Receiving a Performance Improvement Plan

Being put on a performance improvement plan is never a good sign. If you have had strong reviews in the past and have no history of poor performance, being suddenly put on an improvement plan is a strong sign that your employer is looking for a “legal” way to fire you.

10. Facing Unfair Discipline

All employees should be treated equally. If you seem to receive harsher criticism or discipline than your co-workers for similar issues or mistakes, this can be a subtle yet sure sign of age discrimination.