preview

The Age Discrimination Act Was Signed By President Lyndon B. Johnson

Better Essays

The age discrimination act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. The purpose of this act is to promote the employment of older persons based on their ability to perform the work required rather than their age. The original legislation of the act protected people from ages 40 to 65. In 1978, congress decided to pass an amendment that raised the age ceiling to 70 from 65 and then on January 1st, 1987 the age cap was lifted completely. (Thomas K. 2007) The organizations that’re exempt from this law have what is referred to as a Bona Fide Occupation Qualification. This is used to justify age discrimination in job fields that require and have good reasoning to only hire a certain age group. Some examples of job fields that have …show more content…

(EEOC, 2006) Another barrier is economics. The perception of age discrimination as an economic issue is very prevalent. “Freedom from discrimination due to race and gender is considered a civil right guaranteed for all individuals, with violation of this right typically being denounced and prompting remedial action.” (Thomas K., 2007) Yet the case for age discrimination is not the same. People like to think this is because of the idea that performance declines with age which is true but not for everyone and not for every type of job. My opinion on this major issue with the age discrimination act not being enforced properly is agreeable. The evidence is there and it speaks for itself. The fact that only 10 percent of claims even make it to court is insane. I don’t understand how you can have a law like this in place and rarely enforce it. This simply means that organizations won’t abide by it and this is a major problem. The next issue I’d like to talk about is the positive and negative perception of older workers. Executives and managers have both positive and negative outlooks on older employees depending mostly on the job being performed. Studies done by AARP said that elderly workers (those age 50 and older), and were valued for their experience, knowledge, work habits, attitudes, commitment to quality, loyalty, punctuality, ability to keep cool in crisis, and respect to authority. (AARP 1989) They are valued

Get Access