Getting to Know Age Discrimination in the Workplace

 Workplace discrimination in the workplace, especially in Los Angeles and in the whole of California is usually on the basis of one’s race, sex, and disability. But then, not a lot of people are aware that there other instances wherein employers subject their employees and applicants to workplace bias on the basis of their ages. Cases of age discrimination in the workplace may not happen all too often, but such actions related to it are prohibited under the federal and California employment and labor laws.

What is age discrimination?

This form of workplace bias involves an action or conduct in which an employee or applicant becomes less favored in any aspect of employment because of his or her age. An employee or applicant is said to be discriminated against because of age in these following situations: 

• The employer decides not to give an older but qualified candidate a job because of the latter’s age, and not because he or she did not meet the minimum qualifications of the job.
• The supervisor, manager, or any authority in the workplace makes offensive comments towards senior employees frequently, up to the point the work environment becomes hostile. Remarks such as “old man” and “grandma,” as well as uttering biased statements that degrade senior employees, are signs of workplace discrimination.
• A sign of age discrimination is when senior employees are frequently disciplined for doing something that other younger employees do but are able to get away with it.
• An older, more qualified employee was denied a promotion for a vacant job opening in the workplace. Instead, the employer handpicked a younger, inexperience employee to take that job vacancy.
• It is also age discrimination if the employer decides to mass layoff employees, particularly the older ones, in an effort to instill a younger image within the company.

Laws that prohibit age discrimination in Los Angeles, California

Age discrimination in Los Angeles, California is prohibited under some notable federal and state employment and labor laws. One of them is the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which prohibits age discrimination against employees who are over 40 years of age in all aspects of employment, from hiring to termination. Also, it is not illegal under ADEA for an employer or any covered entity to favor an older employee over a younger one, even if both of them are 40 years or older. This federal Act is enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Another law is the State of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). This state employment law, like the ADEA, protects workers aged 40 or older from age discrimination. Not only does the FEHA provide employment protections from age-related bias in the workplace, but also from other protective characteristics, to include race, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. The FEHA is enforced by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Exercising your legal rights
If you have been discriminated in the workplace because of age, or was harassed or subjected to retaliation under the same circumstances, then you must know that you are entitled to exercise your legal rights against your erring employer. Pursuing an age discrimination case against your Los Angeles, California employer should be your top priority. In order to do so, however, you must first seek the legal services of topnotch and respected age discrimination lawyers in Los Angeles. That way, you will have an enhanced chance of not only obtaining compensation from the erring party, but also obtain the justice you truly deserve.