A crane consists of a quarter -circular bar that lies in a plane parallel to the xz plane with a low -friction collar A crane consists of a quarter-circular bar that lies in a plane parallel to the xz plane with a low-friction collar A crane consists of a quarter - circular bar that lies in a plane parallel to the xz plane with a low - friction collar A crane consists of a quarter-circular bar that lies in a plane parallel to the xz plane with a low-friction collar GENERATIONS – Journal of the American Society on Aging Ageism in America: Reframing the Issues and Impacts Pages 34–38 Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite 2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected]. For information about ASA’s publications visit www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA membership visit www.asaging.org/join. 34 | Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 3 Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite 2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected]. For information about ASA’s publications visit www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA membership visit www.asaging.org/join. Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 3 | 35 Ageism and Bias in the American Workplace By Linda Barrington In some workplaces, ageism shows no sign of abating—but there are bright spots in the data, and a new path forward. n June 2015, I happened to receive a promotion for a I high-end business seminar, aimed at a market audience of corporate managers. The seminar offered a short course in retirement readiness, and promised to educate employers on best practices in how to prepare employees for a “secure” retirement. Ageist thinking is far too prevalent across workplaces in the United States. The brochure’s pitch to employers included the prem- ise that employees’ delayed retirement times were serving to slow down productivity levels and interfere with workforce and leadership pipelines. This messaging is regrettable for the bias it prop- agates—that older workers are unproductive and seen as bar- riers to using more profitable talent. Unfortunately, such ageist thinking is far too prev- alent across workplaces in the United States. Ageist Bias: Hiring, Performance, Unemployment Study after study has shown how employers or hiring managers may not objectively evaluate job candidates’ po- tential productivity and are thus biased about demographic characteristics in recruiting and performance reviews (Posthuma and Campion, 2009). For example, in a matched-resumé field study, Lahey (2008) finds that em- ployers were over 40 p.

1. A crane consists of a quarter -circular bar that lies in a plane
parallel to the xz plane with a low -friction
collar
A crane consists of a quarter-circular bar that lies in a plane
parallel to the xz plane with a low-friction collar
A crane consists of a quarter
-
circular bar that lies in a plane parallel to the xz plane with a
low
-
friction
collar

2. A crane consists of a quarter-circular bar that lies in a plane
parallel to the xz plane with a low-friction
collar
GENERATIONS – Journal of the American Society on Aging
Ageism in America: Reframing the Issues and Impacts
Pages 34–38
Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights
reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or
distributed in any form without written permission from the
publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite
2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected].

3. For information about ASA’s publications visit
www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA
membership visit www.asaging.org/join.
34 | Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 3
Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights
reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or
distributed in any form without written permission from the
publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite
2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected].
For information about ASA’s publications visit
www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA
membership visit www.asaging.org/join.
Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 3 | 35
Ageism and Bias in
the American Workplace
By Linda Barrington
In some workplaces, ageism shows no sign of abating—but
there are bright spots in the data, and a new path forward.
n June 2015, I happened to receive a promotion for a
I
high-end business seminar, aimed at a market audience of
corporate managers. The
seminar offered a short course in retirement readiness, and
promised to educate employers on best practices in how to
prepare employees for a “secure” retirement.
Ageist thinking is far too prevalent across workplaces in the

4. United States.
The brochure’s pitch to employers included the prem- ise that
employees’ delayed retirement times were serving to slow down
productivity levels and interfere with workforce and leadership
pipelines. This messaging is regrettable for the bias it prop-
agates—that older workers are
unproductive and seen as bar- riers to using more profitable
talent. Unfortunately, such ageist thinking is far too prev- alent
across workplaces in the United States.
Ageist Bias: Hiring, Performance, Unemployment Study after
study has shown how employers or hiring managers may not
objectively evaluate job candidates’ po- tential productivity and
are thus biased about demographic characteristics in recruiting
and performance reviews (Posthuma and Campion, 2009). For
example, in a matched-resumé field study, Lahey (2008) finds
that em- ployers were over 40 per-
cent more likely to call a female job candidate for an interview
if the high school graduation date on the resumé signaled the
applicant was younger rather than older. (For similar research
based on race and
gender, see Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004; Goldin and
Rouse, 2000). North and Fiske (2013) find that assertive- ness
appears to be interpreted more negatively when the assertive
person is older. (For similar research on “agreeable- ness” in
men versus women, see Judge, Livingston, and Hurst, 2012).
Combine rapid technologi- cal change with the Great Recession
of 2007–2009 and, once unemployed, older work- ers face a
higher likelihood of remaining unemployed long term. In 2014,
45 percent of unemployed 55- to 64-year-olds were reported as
unemployed long term (i.e., twenty-seven weeks or longer),
versus 33 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds (see Figure 1, page 35).
And over the past thirty-five years, the share of unemployed

5. people (for any length of time) who are ages 55 years or older
has grown steadily from well below to on
Figure 1.
Source: Author’s calculations from the Bureau of Labor Force
Statistics from the Current Population Survey
(www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm)historicaldataseries
LNU03008649 and LNU03008643. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
Figure 2.

6. Source: Author’s computation from the Bureau of Labor Force
Statistics from the Current Population Survey
(www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm) historical data series
LNS13000012, LNS13000036, LNS13000089, LNS13000091,
LNS13000093,
LNS13024230. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
from a case study of employees working overtime at Navistar,
Inc., a manufacturer of heavy trucks and diesel engines, that
“adverse outcomes [from overtime]—and indirect costs—do not
increase with advancing age in any kind of wholesale fashion.”
A case study of a Days Inn call center reveals that con- sidering
just one measure of productivity—time per call— resulted in
older workers appear- ing less productive, as they took longer
on average to complete each call received. However, measuring
productivity as revenue generated revealed a positive
association between age and productivity because older workers
in the call center brought in more “revenue by booking more
reservations than younger workers” (Barth and McNaught,
1991).
Older workers in the call center brought in more ‘revenue by
booking more reservations than younger workers.’
par with that of 35- to 44-year- olds and 45- to 54-year-olds
(see Figure 2, above).
The Research Versus Ageist Workplace Myths
The research exists, however, to challenge ageist myths in the

7. workplace. In a study of productivity and workplace
diversity, Troske and Barrington (2001) found that after factor-
ing out machinery age in man- ufacturing establishments,
productivity is no different in establishments with older ver- sus
younger workforces (as measured by the percent of workers
older than age 50).
Allen et al. (2008) conclude
And there are examples of companies who leverage older
workers’ abilities and experi- ence to strategic advantage in the
marketplace. Mary Young’s Gray Skies, Silver Linings: How
Companies Are Forecasting, Managing and Recruiting a Mature
Workforce (2007) presents several synopses of
GENERATIONS – Journal of the American Society on Aging
Pages 34–38
Ageism in America: Reframing the Issues and Impacts
Pages 34–38
Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights
reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or
distributed in any form without written permission from the
publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite
2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected].
For information about ASA’s publications visit
www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA
membership visit www.asaging.org/join.
38 | Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 2

8. Copyright © 2015 American Society on Aging; all rights
reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or
distributed in any form without written permission from the
publisher: American Society on Aging, 575 Market St., Suite
2100, San Francisco, CA 94105-2869; e-mail: [email protected].
For information about ASA’s publications visit
www.asaging.org/publications. For information about ASA
membership visit www.asaging.org/join.
Fall 2015 • Vol. 39 .No. 3 | 39
companies, ranging from CVS/ caremark pharmacy to the lock
maker Abloy Oy, that have de- veloped practices to engage and
retain key talent found in older workers.
The ADEA and Its Impact on Ageism
Many older workers, however, don’t find themselves in fair, let
alone progressive and strategi- cally thinking, workplaces.
Ageist behavior in the work- place—“treating someone (an
applicant or employee) less favorably” because he or she is
older than age 40—is discrimi- nation and illegal under federal
law, as outlined in the Age Dis- crimination in Employment
Act (ADEA) of 1967: “[The]
ADEA applies to employers with 20 or more employees,
including state and local governments. It also applies to
employment agencies and labor organizations, as well as to the
federal government” (ADEA, 1967).
The ADEA applies not only to hiring and firing, but also to
“pay, job assignments, promo- tions, layoff, training, fringe
benefits, and any other term or condition of employment” (U.S.
Equal Employment Opportu- nity Commission [EEOC], 2015a).
Employers are also responsible under the ADEA for a hostile or
offensive work environment created by ha- rassing someone
because of their age (telling age-related jokes, making negative

9. remarks
about a person’s age, etc.), whether the harasser is a manager,
fellow employee, client, or customer. And while it is not illegal
to ask age or birthdate during the job application process, the
U.S. EEOC states that “requests for age information will be
closely scrutinized to make sure that the inquiry was made for a
lawful purpose, rather than for a purpose prohibited by the
ADEA. If the information is needed for a lawful purpose,
it can be obtained after the employee is hired” (U.S. EEOC,
2015b). Most job opportunities, including apprenticeships,
cannot be age-restricted.
Despite the ADEA’s out- lawing of age discrimination almost
fifty years ago, the trend of age-related workplace dis-
crimination charges filed with the EEOC is discouraging, but
not unexpected. According to new analysis of EEOC discri-
mination charge data, there is an upward trend in the number of
age-related discrimination charges (von Schrader and Nazarov,
2015). Specifically, von Schrader and Nazarov find
that the number of charges filed under the ADEA by those old-
er than age 55 has climbed steadily since 2000, roughly in sync
with the growing size and longer careers of this popula- tion.
Among the ADEA charges analyzed, those citing issues relating
to workplace “rela- tions” (e.g., harassment, dis- cipline,
intimidation) have
grown from 10 percent of char- ges in 1993 to almost 30 percent
in 2010.
The number of charges filed under the ADEA by those older
than age 55 has climbed steadily since 2000.
The smallest and largest of employers were equally likely to
have charges filed against them—employers with 100 or fewer
employees and employ- ers with more than 500 em- ployees
each received 32 percent of charges filed. More charges were
filed against employers in the service industry than those in the

10. manual work, transport, sales, professional, or health sectors
and industries, although the likelihood of employees filing
specific types of charges varies notably by industry. Whether
these trends are the result of worsening ageism, heighten- ed
sensitivities, or growing employee awareness of their rights
under ADEA is not known. What is apparent is that employers
have myriad op- portunities, through culture change and
engagement strategies, to improve older workers’ sense of
inclusion.
Conclusion
So what is the path forward? What job placement strategies
could benefit older workers
who are looking for successful re-employment? There is
possibility, not just pessimism. Research has documented that
apprenticeships and intern- ships create positive employ- ment
outcomes for many under-represented groups. For example,
Sterling and Fernan- dez (2014) show that trial employment
through intern- ships can reduce the pay gap in starting salaries
for women, which, as the authors state,
disabilities are correlated with greater likelihood of hiring a
person with a disability (more than a five-fold increase).
Building from the existing literature, expanding internship or
apprenticeship programs for older workers is an approach
worthy of greater consider- ation. Though these types of
programs need more systema- tic development and testing,
designing them for older workers could offer promise in
“returnship” programs (Fish- man Cohen, 2012) and The
Workplace, Inc.’s recently founded Platforms to Employ- ment

11. (www.platformtoemploy ment.com) are breaking new ground
for trial employment that could simultaneously benefit older
workers and employers. This type of proac- tive and creative
work is the advocacy that will help forge more supportive and
inclusive workplaces for the future.
“aligns with prior research to expectation-setting on the part
suggest that when employers are able to learn more about
prospective candidates in advance, the result is better
employer−employee matching.” Erickson et al. (2014) report
that internships for people with
of employers and employees, allowing employers to chal- lenge
and break down myths and biases by creating a low- risk
employment scenario, and successfully matching candi- dates to
positions. Innovative
Linda Barrington, Ph.D., is execu- tive director of the Institute
for Compensation Studies and associate dean for Outreach, ILR
School at Cornell University, New York. She can be contacted
at [email protected].
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Acknowledgement
Esta Bigler, director of the Labor and Employment Law
Program at the ILR School of Cornell Univer- sity, provided
valuable edits and comments. Elise Mordos provided research

14. assistance. The author’s previous research cited in this article
benefited from funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies (grant
#13972) and the support
of The Conference Board, Inc., in New York City.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without permission.