Photo by Dan Peebles
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Fighting Ageism, Through the Ages
July-August 2003
A brief history of the struggle to stamp out age bias
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1964
Civil Rights Act becomes law. Provisions include Title VII, which bans workplace discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin, but not age. Instead, Congress directs U.S. Labor Department to study whether separate age bias laws are needed.
1967
Labor Department delivers its report, which confirms the pervasiveness of age discrimination in the workplace. Congress reacts with Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Modeled on Title VII, the ADEA, to be enforced by Labor Department, protects workers 40 to 65.
1978
Congress extends ADEA protection through age 70.
President Carter transfers ADEA enforcement to EEOC.
1987
ADEA's upper age limit eliminated. This, says Laurie McCann, a senior AARP attorney, allowed "the law to serve its true purpose of protecting any older person against workplace bias."
1990
Older Workers Benefit Protection Act becomes law. It bans employers from denying benefits to older employees because of age, unless cost of providing the benefits can be shown to increase with age. Law is a response to a Supreme Court decision upholding a company's right to deny or trim benefits to older employees.
1991
Civil Rights Act of 1991 amends the nation's major civil rights laws, including ADEA, effectively overturning several recent Supreme Court decisions that made victory difficult for age bias plaintiffs.
1996
In O'Connor v. Consolidated Coin Caterers Corp., U.S. Supreme Court rules ADEA doesn't require a fired worker to show that he or she was replaced by someone under 40 to prove age discrimination. Among Court's few favorable age bias decisions.
2000
In Kimel v. State of Florida Board of Regents, high court rules that state government agencies are protected by Constitution from being sued for money damages under the ADEA. Says McCann: "The decision leaves state employees as second-class citizens."
2001
Largest class-action suit ever to charge age bias filed on behalf of 6,400 Allstate insurance agents. They claim Allstate ended their employment contracts to strip them of pensions and other benefits, as a way of weeding out older agents. The still-pending lawsuit could have a ripple effect throughout corporate America.
2002
Without making a ruling, the Supreme Court tosses out Adams v. Florida Power Corporation, a key test of age-bias victims' right to challenge employer practices and policies that hit older workers hardest (AKA "disparate impact"). With federal appeals courts divided on whether this theory applies to age discrimination victims, the high court's move leaves the question unresolved.
Age discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC hit a record 19,921. The slumping economy and the graying of the American workforce are prime factors.
2003
EEOC wins the biggest age discrimination settlement in U.S. history, recovering $250 million in back pay for 1,700 public safety officers in California in EEOC and Arnett et al. v. CalPERS. As important as the financial win is to the plaintiffs, the case also focuses attention on the growing problem of age discrimination in the workplace and gives a boost to the EEOC.
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