Just this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA), a huge step forward toward protecting older workers within their current jobs and when seeking employment. The bipartisan bill would restore older workers’ rights under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which covers workers age 40 and over.
This monumental vote was a decade in the making, and sends a clear message that it is time to start treating age discrimination as seriously as other forms of workplace discrimination.
POWADA was first introduced – with AARP backing – after a 2009 Supreme Court decision (Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc.) that made it much more difficult for older workers to prove claims of illegal bias based on age. This case stated that age discrimination must have played a decisive role in the employer’s action instead of “influencing” the decision.
Not only does this higher standard make cases much harder to prove; it is only applied to age discrimination cases. Workers who allege discrimination based on gender, race, religion or national origin are subject to a lower standard of proof. This signals that age discrimination is not as egregious, and therefore not as actionable.
POWADA essentially restores age discrimination law the way it was before this 2009 decision; in accordance with prior standards, “mixed motive” claims would be again recognized, where age was a motivating factor for an employer’s action, even though nondiscriminatory motives may have also been involved. This shifts the burden to the employer to show that they would have made the same decision absent the discrimination.
It’s why AARP Utah applauds Rep. Ben McAdams, a Democrat from the 4th Congressional District, on behalf of our 226,000 local members for voting “yes” on POWADA to restore older workers rights. It is our hope that the rest of Utah’s congressional delegation will support the act’s intent should it be enacted.
Age discrimination takes an emotional toll on older workers, but it is also threatening their financial security, as recent studies reveal. More than 75 percent of older job seekers cited age discrimination as a significant reason for their unemployment, according to an AARP study.
Yet the harm doesn’t stop there. ProPublica and The Urban Institute found that more than half of older workers are prematurely pushed out of longtime jobs, and 90% of these workers never go on to earn as much – a financial hit that follows them into retirement.
Age discrimination in the workplace, like any other kind of discrimination, is simply wrong. Older workers should have the same rights as every other worker to be treated fairly in the workplace based on their merits, not based on negative stereotypes and outdated assumptions. Further, the knowledge older workers gain through years on the job — e.g., problem solving and long-term strategy — often cannot be replaced without having gone through previous experiences.
Older Utahns need Congress to ensure that age discrimination is treated just as seriously under the law as any other form of workplace discrimination. Workers age 65-plus are the fastest growing age group in the labor force. Across party and ideological lines, roughly eight in 10 American voters age 50-plus say it’s important for Congress to take action to restore workplace protections against age discrimination. Fortunately, with the House’s recent vote, we are one step closer.
The companion Senate legislation, S.485 is also sponsored on a bipartisan basis, by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Bob Casey, D-Penn.
Ten years is long enough. We urge Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney to work together with their colleagues to pass POWADA now and show our older workers — those age 40-plus who make up nearly half of Utah’s workforce — that you are working to protect them.
Alan Ormsby
Alan Ormsby is the state director for AARP Utah. Follow AARP Utah on Facebook at facebook.com/aarput.