Older Workers Are America's Fastest-Growing Labor Pool — and the Least Protected From Workplace Discrimination

AARP reports that employees 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workforce, but enforcement against age-based discrimination is lax, according to CNBC . AARP estimated that 61 percent of respondents older than 45 saw or experienced such discrimination in the workplace last year. The newly revived Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act would overturn a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that made age discrimination cases harder to prove. "I think this act is very important to strengthen protections for older workers so they're not excluded from the workforce earlier than they want to be based on bias," notes attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan. The reintroduced bill would reinstate the legitimacy of mixed-motive claims that would permit plaintiffs to prove age is a motivating factor, if not the deciding factor, in negative actions taken against them. "For both older workers and employers, this bill is something they should be paying attention to," says AARP's Cristina Martin Firvida.