Coverage of aging is supported in part by AARP Arizona
As Arizonans stay in the workforce longer and longer, they may experience age discrimination.
If you’re over 40, you’re protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It prohibits employees from discriminating against current or prospective employees based on age.
Mary O’Neill is the regional attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Phoenix. She says the law doesn’t just apply to employers. But also recruiters and staffing agencies.
"They are an agent of the employer. And so the employer is just as responsible for any discrimination that the third party recruiter or the staffing agency engages in," O'Neill said.
She added that the office has seen an uptick in cases.
"About 20% of our charges are age discrimination cases," O'Neill said.
A phrase she says often appears in complaints is, “you’re overqualified.”
"People are told things like you can't teach an old dog new tricks, or the assumption that somebody who's older doesn't understand technology or isn't up to date with technology for their job. So sometimes there's code words like that. But overqualified is one of the phrases we see that’s just a code word for age discrimination," O’Neill said.
