Age Discrimination

An editorial in the New York Times entitled Preventing Age Discrimination (October 12, 2009) talks about discrimination based on age. The author says a new Supreme Court ruling makes it harder for people who have experienced age based discrimination to receive compensation. The reasoning is quite sound in that the victim of another form of discrimination in the workplace would have more support by law than the new ruling allows.

This is a problem because as the author points out, according to the AARP older people have more trouble finding jobs and in today’s economic climate that is dangerous. The article also points out that age-discrimination being reported was up 29% in 2008. Committees in Congress are already working on bills to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling. The article concludes by saying that it is “up to Congress to put the teeth back into the law”, a valid conclusion. It is logical that age based discrimination holds as much weight as racial or sexual discrimination. The author cites a case where “relief was denied to an underpaid woman”. If there is a dispute about other forms of discrimination, it is up to the workplace to prove they did not act discriminatively. However, if someone experiences age based discrimination they are on their own to prove that they were treated unfairly. Age should not be the only reason someone gets fired if they are perfectly capable of doing their job. The Supreme Court should be protecting peoples’ rights not making it more difficult for them to receive compensation if their rights have been violated.