Journal opinion article: an economic issue of current interest to Wall Street Journal - Essay Example

Age Discrimination in the Workplace Discrimination has been in existence for a prolonged period. Whether it is foundon age, race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or other different variables, discrimination has been a feature of human beings. For several decades, looking at another human being in a worthless way has been conventional. Nevertheless, it is only recently that human beings have taken the trouble to look at discrimination as a problem in a number of areas. There is no society which has been spared from the menace of discrimination.

Age discrimination in the work place has turned into a more significant economic matter. Its continuing presence is a result of two opposing components. The first is the evident elderly workforce and an economic recession that places employment opportunities at the best and allows business owners to be particularly choosy in the workplace (Mujtaba and Cavico 14). This paper will examine age discrimination in the workplace. It will accomplish this through defining age discrimination, highlighting different forms of age discrimination, illustrating various examples of workplace age discrimination, and related cases.

Age discrimination has been a concern for a long time for individuals aged fifty five years and above. However, in this difficult economic period, younger employees may have as much to be afraid of as their more senior co-workers. As levels of unemployment continue to go up during this difficult financial period, cases of age discrimination continue to escalate. Age discrimination refers to the condition where a person is dealt with in a different manner than another person in a similar situation due to their age.

Senior age discrimination is evident in people aged 65 years and more. Older age discrimination is evident in individuals between the ages of 50 and 65 years old. Middle age discrimination is experienced by people between 25 years old and 49 years old. Ultimately, Young age discrimination refers to the form of discrimination encountered by young people, because of their age. It is normally experienced by persons of age 16 to 24 (Mujtaba and Cavico 28). Moreover, people occupying the workforce population are growing older.

This makes it difficult to face elderly employees. Suzy Reingold, a sixty six year old chief operating officer of Cushman & Wakefield Incorporation’ New York tri-state region filed a case demanding $20 million in damages because she claimed she suffered gender and age discrimination in the organization. She maintained that she did not receive the promotion she considers she was guaranteed. She became an employee of the company in 2005 as an executive managing director. In February 2013, she became the company’s tri-state region chief operating officer.

She asserted that she had received verbal declarations from a head that the job will be hers when the company’s New York region president, Joseph Harbert would leave the company in 2012. After the departure of Joseph Harbert, the company started to look for a replacement, and appointed a thirty eight year old male applicant, Lo Russo, from Vornado Realty Trust. Suzy Reingold argued that male co-workers who dealt with fewer people had been reimbursed at tremendously high levels. This may have a negative impact on the performance of the organization as the important position may be filled by an inexperienced person.

In numerous cases, promotion is found on the basis of experience and or length of service. Therefore, Suzy Reingold should have been given the opportunity (Slatin 1). Also, workers below thirty years old are finding themselves more in danger of being laid off, according to labour lawyers, as business owners aim to avert age discrimination cases by embracing a last one in, first one out rule and employing tenure as a way of carrying out dismissals. In a number of instances, employees who are young and do not have children claim that they are being aimed at during layoffs.

On the other hand, workers who have households to support are given exclusive consideration. According to figures from the Labour Department, while there is no age group which is exempted from layoffs, employees who are younger appear to be shouldering a big part of the issue. In April 2009, the rate of unemployment for people aged between 25 and 35 years old was 9.6%. This was an increase from 4.9% recorded a year earlier. On the other hand, in April 2009, the rate of unemployment for people aged between 55 years old and above was 6.

2 %, in comparison to 3.3% recorded a year earlier (Mattioli 1). Several research conclusions offer an ample economic case for employers and the government to develop age discrimination laws for both young and elderly workers. Works Cited Mattioli, D. “With Jobs Scarce, Age Becomes an Issue: More Young Workers Are at Risk of Layoffs as Employers Grow Wary of Letting Older Employees Go.” The wall Street Journal 19 May. 2009. Print. Mujtaba, B. G., and Cavico, F. J. The Aging Workforce: Challenges And Opportunities For Human Resource Professionals.

Florida: ILEAD Academy, 2010, Print. Slatin, P. “Executive's Lawsuit Claims Bias at Cushman & Wakefield: Official Says She Was Denied a Promised Promotion.” The wall Street Journal 21 Oct. 2013. Print.