May 11, 2004

Gender, ethnicity, religion, and age.
Posted by noseworthy@bostonworks.com">Nicole Noseworthy at 4:23 PM -

As the workforce ages, many are coming up against a different type of "glass ceiling" - one that has your age written all over it:

Age discrimination in the workplace extends beyond layoffs, of course, but it's even harder to prove the existence of any age-related ''glass ceiling'' the invisible barrier that prevents employees from advancing any higher.

Workplace consultant Connie Wang suspects many older professionals feel they're the victims of age discrimination but wouldn't challenge their employers because of an underlying concern that ''Who's going to hire me at my age?''

However:

Despite the big demographic shift, there's been no explosion of age discrimination charges so far. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received an annual average of 19,500 age claims over the past two years, down slightly from 1992-93, and claims actually declined 4 percent in 2003 from a year earlier.

But some experts think it may be only a matter of time before discrimination claims go up now that workers 40 or older comprise about half the nation's work force particularly with the age group now dominated by a generation known for going, and getting, its own way.

Read more in: "Age discrimination a looming boomer issue; hard to prove"

...