The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects people 40 and older on the federal and state level.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is legal for an employer to favor an older worker over a younger worker even if both are over 40. However, it is discrimination to favor the person who is the younger of the two.
Where this applies
Aside from ordinary discrimination in the workplace, such as promoting younger people sooner without cause, or harassing older workers, there is also the matter of writing job ads that imply younger people would be considered over older counterparts. This is a problem around the world, and in the U.K., the BBC offered the following example as a discriminatory advertisement:
"My client is recruiting a recent graduate to join their extremely busy team. You should be looking for a career, have good customer service skills and good administration skills including data entry."
This ad suggests that older people are likely to not be considered. This can be regarded as a form of discrimination. According to the EEOC, discrimination complaints have been rising, from 15,785 in 1997 to 21,396 in 2013. What this means is that companies should be cautious and mindful they do not even have the appearance of being discriminatory.
Why companies are discriminatory
According to Forbes, some companies prefer younger workers because they feel older workers may not have the energy level needed for the position. Other times, the concern is that older workers can't keep up with modern technology and that they are set in their ways or aren't able to work well with younger employees. Forbes reported that it can sometimes be difficult to prove age discrimination. So, in defiance to age biases, it's important to plan, network and be proactive.