What do you need to know about age discrimination?

Most of the time when we hear about discrimination occurring in the workplace, we probably think of race or gender discrimination. To be sure, news stories about these two types of discrimination seem to pop up in California quite frequently. But, it is important to remember that there are other forms of discrimination too – some that can affect anyone, regardless of race or gender. Age discrimination is an example.

Age discrimination basics

It can be easy to forget that sometimes older workers in America are subject to just as much discrimination as other workers. Some of the forms of discrimination are similar though, like harassment. Just as minority workers, for example, might be harassed because of their race, older workers might be harassed because of their age. Younger workers may subject older workers to offensive or harmful threats and comments. If such harassment is severe enough and frequent enough, there may be enough there to build a case to support allegations of age discrimination in the workplace.

Age discrimination can come in other forms as well. For example, employers might pass over an older worker for a promotion to pick a younger worker instead – usually because the younger worker doesn’t earn as much in income. Or, older workers might be denied training opportunities, with the thinking that they won’t be at the job as long as a younger worker might be and, therefore, the training might be “wasted” on the older worker.

Being on the receiving end of any type of discrimination is hard. At our law firm, we know just how much of an impact discrimination can have on employees and their job opportunities. For more information about how we help California residents fight back against age discrimination, please visit our website.