5 ms·
Fun fact: In the U.S., you can age discriminate (ie: not hire people under/over a certain age) all you want, as long as the person isn't over 40. So you can ce
by officemonkey 13y ago
Fun fact: In the U.S., you can age discriminate (ie: not hire people under/over a certain age) all you want, as long as the person isn't over 40.
So you can certainly legally not hire people over 35 years old, as long as they're not yet 40.
Once they're 40, you can not discriminate against them because they're too old (eg: Fred can't do that job, he's 50 years old) or too young (eg: We can't hire Joe for the CEO job, he's only 42.)
Of course there are many reasons to hire/not hire someone, but if you're using age as a criteria, you are on very shaky ground legally.
- StavrosK 13y agoIn practice, though, since hiring decisions are so subjective, couldn't one justify it with "we felt that they wouldn't be a good fit" and be off the hook?
- spellboots 13y agoYes, it is often easy to circumvent the law.
- officemonkey 13y agoIf the person isn't "a good fit" then yes, as long as the record (your emails) supports that decision. Email saying things like "he's so much older than the other applicants" or "he's got school-aged kids, so his head won't be in the game" will be found in discovery and will lose your case. Another thing to consider: people who file discrimination lawsuits usually do not prevail on the discrimination claim, they prevail on the retaliation claim. It is often quite easy to show retaliation, especially if it is an employee and not an applicant.
- StavrosK 13y agoAh, interesting, thanks. So these laws aren't as unenforceable as I thought, that's good.
- sethammons 13y agoWhy is that good?
- officemonkey 13y agoBecause discrimination against criteria that have nothing to do with job performance is bad.
- StavrosK 13y agoMore generally, I think those criteria are proxies for actual performance. For example, you can infer information about someone's performance from their age, absent of any other information, but when you do have the extra information and still rely on proxies, it's bias.
- officemonkey 13y ago>you can infer information about someone's performance from their age I would argue that you can not infer much about someone's job performance based solely on their age.
- StavrosK 13y agoSure, not much, but some.
- officemonkey 13y agoI completely disagree.