There are a lot of situations in the workplace in which older workers may feel that they’re being discriminated against. Perhaps they’ve watched as all the other workers of the same age have been let go and replaced with younger workers, for instance.
You may be wondering why this type of thing happens. There are a few different reasons that can contribute.
Cutting costs
First of all, the company may use the excuse of trying to cut costs. If they feel that they have to pay someone with 30 years of experience twice as much as someone who just graduated from college, they may decide to fire the older worker and hire the college student. They know that the other person is far more qualified to do the job, but they’re only thinking about the bottom line.
The company culture
In other cases, the employer may say that they just felt that the person didn’t fit the company culture that they were trying to build. But what do they really mean by that? Do they actually mean that that person couldn’t fit the culture or do they mean that they specifically want a culture of young workers? If it is the latter, then that could be evidence that they’re discriminating based on age, rather than any other inherent qualities that the employee has.
What can you do?
These are just two examples of why age discrimination happens. If it does happen to you, be sure you know about all of the legal steps that you can take. You do have rights and discrimination based solely on age is illegal in the United States.