Age Discrimination In Employment Act Of 1967 (ADEA)

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) was passed by Congress to make it unlawful for an employer to base employment decisions or discriminate based on a worker’s age. It was designed to address to eliminate ageism based on stereotypes about the weakened skills of older individuals by forcing employers to judge older workers on their merits, not age-based myths, prejudices or stereotypes. The ADEA covers workers age 40 and older. The ADEA was amended by Older Workers’ Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) in 1990 and 1998 to give workers increased protection. Due to the aging workforce, age discrimination would become more prevalent. Workplace age stereotypes are beliefs and expectations about workers based on their age (Hamilton
& Sherman, 1994). Often stereotypes are negative, inaccurate, or distorted opinions about people based on their membership in a particular group They may be based on hearsay, preconceived ideas, or unfounded assumptions and incorrectly infer that all members of that group are the same.
These stereotypes can lead to older employee discrimination, harassment, and terminated based on their age, or forced to retire when they otherwise would not. Older employees bring a set of skill sets to an organization that is hard to find in the younger generation. There a number of reasons why employing older workforce that includes dedication, detail-oriented, committed, and they take pride in what they do. Due to