Age disadvantages, such as the ability to retain or regain employment due to arbitrary age limit setting in spite of performance, or skill and morale deterioration due to training omission, are problematic to a healthy economy. Because of this, certain laws are put in place to deter such disadvantages; yet these same protective laws that serve to guide employer ethical behavior might also oblige employee unethical behavior in the form of frivolous law suits. Here we review ethical issues under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, its impacts to both employers and employees, and reveal the importance for employers to be informed of age discrimination employment law, and to develop an organizational culture that is unmistakably void of age discrimination.
In 1967, congress enacted into law the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which makes it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of age (ADEA, 1967). Congress found age discrimination in employment problematic to a healthy economy; in fact the law proclaims that “the existence …show more content…
For example, the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots is legal because it is deemed a bona fide occupational qualification; employers can even offer incentives to influence workers to retire early (Lau & Johnson, 2011). However, when employers reduce benefits if workers do not retire at set age limits as compared to those who do, ethical issues arise. In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Minnesota Law Enforcement Association, 2011, an Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) contained a provision that took away employer paid insurance premium contributions if workers did not retire at age 55, causing failure to satisfy the ADEA’s ERIP safe harbor rule because it was inconsistent with the ADEA’s relevant purpose (Id. At 1042). Ethical ERIP’s should influence by reward, as opposed to manipulate by threat of
In 1967, congress enacted into law the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which makes it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of age (ADEA, 1967). Congress found age discrimination in employment problematic to a healthy economy; in fact the law proclaims that “the existence …show more content…
For example, the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots is legal because it is deemed a bona fide occupational qualification; employers can even offer incentives to influence workers to retire early (Lau & Johnson, 2011). However, when employers reduce benefits if workers do not retire at set age limits as compared to those who do, ethical issues arise. In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Minnesota Law Enforcement Association, 2011, an Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) contained a provision that took away employer paid insurance premium contributions if workers did not retire at age 55, causing failure to satisfy the ADEA’s ERIP safe harbor rule because it was inconsistent with the ADEA’s relevant purpose (Id. At 1042). Ethical ERIP’s should influence by reward, as opposed to manipulate by threat of