Age Discrimination in Employment Act (US)

The ADEA prohibits…

Discrimination in hiring, promotions, wages, or firing/layoffs.

Statements or specifications in job notices or advertisements of age preference and limitations.

Denial of benefits to older employees. An employer may reduce benefits based on age only if the cost of providing the reduced benefits to older workers is the same as the cost of providing full benefits to younger workers.

Since 1978 it has prohibited mandatory retirement in most sectors, with phased elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured workers, such as college professors, in 1993.

Mandatory retirement based on age is permitted for two reasons:

Executives over age 65 in high policy-making positions who are entitled to a pension over a minimum yearly amount.

Employees over age 70 who have unlimited contract tenure at colleges or universities.

The ADEA was later amended in 1986 and again in 1991 by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (Pub. L. 101-433) and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-166).

The ADEA differs from the Civil Rights Act in that the ADEA applies to employers of 20 or more employees (see 29 U.S.C. § 630(b)) rather than 15 or more employees, thus providing less protection. Both acts do, however, only apply to employers in industries affecting interstate commerce.

An age limit may be legally specified in the circumstance where age has been shown to be a "bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business" (BFOQ) (see 29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(1)). In practice, BFOQs for age are limited to the obvious (hiring a young actor to play a young character in a movie) or when public safety is at stake (for example, in the case of age limits for pilots and bus drivers).

Because of the Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents U. S. Supreme Court ruling, the ADEA law does not apply to state employees.

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