Age Discrimination
...is/her age. These terms, conditions, and privileges include, but are not limited to hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training. Laws also protect people from being retaliated against for opposing employment practices that discriminate, filing age discrimination charges, testifying, or participating in a discrimination hearing or investigation. Age preferences, limitations, or specifications cannot be included in job notices or advertisements according to the ADEA. It is not illegal to ask an applicants age, but these requests are watched closely so that this information is not solely used to make decisions when hiring employees. Denying benefits to older employees is another discrimination concern. The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 (OWBPA) was put in place to prohibit employers from denying benefits to older employees. Age discrimination can take place in a variety of forms. There are obvious examples of age discrimination such as hiring a person who is less qualified or suited for a position, but is younger and more attractive. Other examples of age discrimination can include such things as moving an employee to a smaller office once he/she reach a certain age or continuously increasing an employee’s workload and pressures in the hopes he/she will quit. All of these circumstances can be constituted as age discrimination and can bring about complaints that could lead to law suits. Awards from juries in age discrimination law suits are generally the largest of all discrimination awards. There are several reasons why the damage awards in these cases are very high. The first reason is because older employees have generally been working with a company for a long number of years and are earning good wages, which increases the amount awarded for lost wages. Damages for lost wages and benefits are also increased because of the fact that the employees discriminated against are older it is also harder for them to find a job to replace the one that they lost. Another reason why awards from age discrimination law suits are high is because employees can sue for emotional distress and punitive damages. Punitive damages are decided by the jury and emotions normally play a very big role in these decisions. In other discrimination law suits some of the members of the jury may never be able to empathize with the employee because they will never be in the same position. A male on the jury of a woman alleging sexual harassment or gender discrimination will not be able to put himself in her shoes just as a white jury member would not be able to fully empathize with an African-American employee alleging race discrimination. On the other hand it doesn’t matter what race or gender you are everyone hopes to and plans to grow old. It is very easy for jury members to put themselves in the employee’s shoes and want to help make a statement against this type of discrimination in the hopes that it will not happen to them. Before an age discrimination claim can go to trial there is a process that must be followed. The first step after an employee feels they have been di...