Older Job Applicants Not Protected By Age Bias Law, Says U.S. Appeals Court

A divided federal appeals court restricted age bias claims to employees, ruling that age discrimination protection does not apply to external job applicants.

Source: Older Job Applicants Not Protected By Age Bias Law, Says U.S. Appeals Court

See?? It’s not in my imagination, or the imaginations of anyone approaching 45 years old or older.  I remember for my current job, I openly voiced my concerns about age discrimination to the recruiter, who assured me that bias wasn’t prevalent in this particular company, and fortunately, it’s a company that values for…ahem…more experienced workers.

However, this proves that it’s not unique to the tech comm community. We already know that ageism runs rampant in the tech world, and now we have some precedence that HR people will have to keep in mind.  The economy of the last 10 years or so have forced so many more people who are not millennials to have to either start over or even do drastic makeovers on their careers as technology–which we helped develop in some cases. I understand that millennials need jobs, too. But employers need to get realistic about what the job market is about.  Don’t offer someone who is generally more experienced an entry-level job for peanuts that requires the amount of experience you have. Likewise, don’t expect an entry-level person to have multiple years of experience in something.  I’ve seen it played both ways, and it just doesn’t work.  Just find what you need exactly, and properly pay for what you want. We all understand businesses watching their finances, but something will suffer in either scenario. You’ll either have an experienced person who is underappreciated and miserable for having low pay that doesn’t line up with their experience and skill value, and you’ll have miserable entry-level people who will be overwhelmed because they don’t have all that it takes to do what is required.

There are so many antiquated practices in HR–especially in the IT/tech comm world that need some major adjustments, and ageism is a big component of that.

What do you think? Include your comments below.

–TechCommGeekMom