The percentage of workers aged more than 60 years who reported age-related discrimination decreased from 24% in 2020 to 19% in 2021, according to seniorliving.org’s annual report on age discrimination in the workplace, published Monday.
Overall, the number of workers over the age of 40 who reported age-related discrimination at their current jobs dropped from 20% in 2020 to 15% in 2021. Workers aged 40 to 60 who reported age-related discrimination declined from 18% to 14%
Federal law expressly protects certain applicants and employees aged 40 or more years from discrimination on the basis of age. The practice continues in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, from someone being passed over for a promotion to having employment terminated to being laid off before others, according to the study. Workers aged more than 60 years reported discriminatory terminations and layoffs two-and-a-half times more often than 40-to 60-year-olds (43% compared with 17%).
Workers at companies with more than 1,000 employees were less likely to have experienced age discrimination than workers at smaller companies (11% compared with 17%, respectively). At the same time, research showed that workers at larger companies also were less likely to report discrimination (62%, compared with 75%, respectively). For various reasons, workers at larger companies also were less likely to report ageism than were workers at smaller companies (62% versus 75%, respectively)
