Worried that a company won’t hire you because of your age? If they discriminated against you and you’re over 40, that’s illegal. You aren’t guaranteed to get the job, of course, but you cannot be denied on account of your age alone.
Companies know this. There are very few instances where they say they only want to hire workers in a specific age bracket. That’s clear discrimination and, should it happen, they can be sued.
However, they may still have this outlook. They may want to hire only younger workers. How do they do it? They try to hide the discrimination by using other terms that accomplish the same goal without directly saying what they’re doing.
We’re looking to hire recent college grads!
The above is an example of a job posting you may see. A company may talk about looking for tech natives or trying to create a dynamic workforce with personality and energy. They may say that they’re looking to bring on some recent college graduates to fill new positions.
Technically, the company could claim that this isn’t discrimination. You can enroll in college and graduate at any age.
However, this is a trick often used to discriminate because it means that the vast majority of applications are going to come from those in their 20s. Moreover, if you graduated at 25 and you’re now 42, you are not a recent graduate due to your age. That’s not your fault, and you may have all of the skills needed for the job, but you’re being discriminated against because you were in school nearly two decades earlier.
What should you do?
You can see how discrimination continues to be a problem in the American workforce, even though laws have been enacted to put a stop to it. If this happens to you, then you must know what legal options you have. It can help to talk to industry professionals who have seen this play out in the past and who will know if your rights have been violated.
