Age Discrimination

Cross-Cultural views of Aging

Ageism does not exist across all cultures. Unlike many Western nations, countries such as Japan, China, and Korea associate age with positive rather than negative features. Generally, these countries see the elderly as wise, respected, strong authority figures who advise the family. A long-standing, traditional Japanese ritual, the Kankrei, releases the elderly person from middle age responsibilities, so that he or she can have the freedom to achieve whatever he or she wishes. A national holiday in Japan, known as Respect the Aged Day, celebrates older people. In comparison, within the United States and other Western nations, the elderly are not considered a vital and integral part of the culture. Attitudes toward the older generation are much more negative, including the perspective that older individuals are far less productive and do not have much to offer society. Such attitudes contribute to age discrimination.

Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Two trends are shifting the composition of the U.S. workforce to an older one. First, there are growing numbers of people 55 years and older remaining in the workforce. In 2000, 13% of the workforce was older than 55 years, and by 2020, this number is projected to increase to 39%. In 2005, the actual number of workers 55 years or older is 22 million. Why do people continue to work longer? The reasons are varied and include increased life expectancy with good health combined with fewer physically demanding jobs, the need to financially support dependents, and increased medical and health care costs with less coverage by health care benefits and pensions. Retirement of the “baby boomers” is the second trend affecting the workforce. As the baby boomer population continues to retire throughout this decade, there will be increasingly more jobs available than workers to fill them. The result of these trends is a substantial increase and reliance on older workers.

Perhaps the most well-documented environment in which older individuals encounter age discrimination is the workplace. The older worker may face age discrimination in seeking employment and may also face discrimination on the job. Despite evidence that older employees are generally as flexible, easy to train, and cost-effective as younger workers, older job candidates may be less successful in finding employment than younger individuals. Several important factors, including contextual and situational variables, have been shown to influence age discrimination in the selection of employees. The more obvious variable that can result in age discrimination is the strength of the bias against older workers held by the individuals making the hiring decisions. Strength of such bias varies widely across people. For this reason, organizations such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and[Page 50] industrial gerontologists have recommended training those who do the hiring in recognizing and counteracting potential bias against older people. A second variable, age-typing of the job involved, also is related to age discrimination. Older individuals are more at risk for being passed over in hiring processes if the job is perceived as a “younger person's job.” Positive age stereotypes in relation to older workers can also exist. In such cases, older workers have the advantage because they are seen as more appropriate or qualified for an “older-person's job.” Finally, empirical support exists for the idea that negative stereotypes are far more likely to inadvertently creep into hiring decisions if such decisions are conducted hastily or while the evaluator is cognitively distracted by other tasks. For this reason, employers are encouraged to avoid making decisions quickly or while they are mentally preoccupied with other work issues. Instead, such individuals need to be trained to make thoughtful and informed decisions in which they carefully evaluate all available information about the specific job candidate, while keeping aware of the potential for bias.

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