Question

A company cannot discriminate against a potential job applicant merely because that person is older, but they can discriminate against the job applicant if they think they would need to pay him more (older workers generally have more experience and expect higher salaries).

What should an older job applicant do in this situation - does it depend on the type of job?

Answer 1

No one can be discriminated against on the basis of age. Nevertheless, if the company can not afford to pay the older workers if the projected wages are higher, then at the workplace it is relatively fairer. But in this case, in order to secure an older job applicant, no tactics could be applied that could result in their search for work being intensified in order to be more desired. In case it is for a managerial job, the resume of older people should limit their years of experience to a maximum of fifteen years.

Title VII, which made any discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, religion or color in employment illegal. Title VII of the Act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce laws prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age in the hiring, promotion, firing, wage setting, testing, training, apprenticeship and all other terms and conditions of employment. Race, colour, sex, creed, and age are classes that are now protected. Nonetheless, the skills are always the selling point in a career, in the case of an older job aspirant, the challenge would be to equate the same with versatility at work in such a way that employers are able to understand that although old, this aspirant is open to change when applying the skills in a given scenario more realistically. It should be remembered that dynamism is something an employer must always look for in the workers and expect the same from the older employees as well. Each of these recommendations could be applied to ensure more chances of being accepted even as an older job seeker by the employer if the aspirants were able to bridge the difference between the perceptions of what the employers have from the younger employees to that of the older ones.