Age Discrimination

On the www.aarp.org website, the article “10 Things You Should Know About Age Discrimination” starts with a short clip of a woman named Susan who was 59 years old, had recently finished law school, and was seeking work based on her degree. Expert Kerry Hannon spoke on statistics about age discrimination in the work place and some resumé tips for older people. The statistics is what was most shocking to me in the video. A study showed that 61 percent of older workers in the work environment had experienced or seen age discrimination, and 91 percent said it was common. Although there is an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), it is hard to prove that employers are discriminating. Hannon then went on to speak about resumé tips. Some of these tips included not adding your graduation date, exclude how many years of experience you have, avoid career objective, and others. After watching the video, the article gives 10 facts about age discrimination. The facts seem what would be common sense to the general public, but could easily be forgotten or over looked. A few examples look like: how workers ages 50 and up tend to experience age discrimination more. 12 percent of workers have claimed they’ve missed promotions due to age. The EEOC received 20,857 charges of discrimination. All in all, society needs to be more understanding of older generations. Employers need to be fair when giving opportunities to people seeking jobs regardless of age.

No matter the age our society tends to set labels on age. Growing up, at age 16 was when you should have your drivers license. If you didn’t you weren’t as cool as the other kids who already did have their license. Discriminating on age is a social problem because it leads to negative stereotypes, especially against older people. An example that I have personally seen myself on age discrimination was at my summer internship. A guy named Mark who is a technical engineer for Pierce County had been discriminated against because of his age. He was telling me how he wanted to get hired on for the state to be an inspector for WSDOT, but had been rejected. From personally working with Mark, he had all the qualifications and experience for this position, but instead the state gave it to someone who was younger. Although I don’t know the other person that was hired, there is still the possibility of this being a form of age discrimination. Age discrimination will continue to happen if we don’t take action. As the symbolic interactionist theory suggests, the older generation should still be provided work because it provides them new sources of identity, and satisfaction in life.

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