Age Discrimination

The number of age-discrimination complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has risen 23.5 percent in the past two years - the fastest-growing category of discrimination cases. The number of complaints tends to rise as the number of layoffs increases, said Paul Boymel, an EEOC senior attorney who specializes in age discrimination. While age-discrimination laws also cover hiring and promotions, the majority of the cases filed have to do with unfair termination practices.

Since yesterday's post on pointless strictures went up, further suggestions have come in. Eventually I will repost the original text with all the additions, but for now, keep 'em coming. I'm a little apprehensive about some of these. Since our newspapers, magazines and book publishers have dispensed with most of the geezers,* those remaining on the thin red line of American editing may not even be aware of some of the more venerable superstitions. I certainly don't wish to corrupt the young.

The federal government announced its largest settlement ever in a discrimination lawsuit yesterday when California's giant state pension fund agreed to pay $250 million to disabled public safety officers who sued over age discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the money would be paid to 1,700 disabled police officers, firefighters and other safety officers whose disability benefits were reduced based on their age when they were hired. Under a 24-year-old California law, a public safety officer hired at age 30 was to receive 50 percent of salary when disabled, someone hired at 35, 40 percent, someone hired at 40, 30 percent, and someone hired at 45, just 20 percent.

I turned 50 last month. As expected, I received many of the handshakes, high-fives, and other celebratory gestures befitting such a milestone. I also received a few of those special birthday cards. You know — those "humorous" cards that poke fun at presumed maladies that come with aging and which tend to focus on difficulties in the sexual and cognitive realms. These types of cards are plentiful at local card shops and drug stores, even my own hospital's gift shop. A presumed decline in one's physical and mental capabilities is built into these funny messages, which are designed to make us laugh at our situation.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Ocean City's mayor and city council, accusing them of age discrimination, the federal agency announced Wednesday. The lawsuit alleges the resort town failed to hire Anthony Indge as full-time airport associate in 2008 because he was 62. Indge had been employed as a temporary line technician and filled in as an airport associate in 2007 and 2008. During Indge's interview for the full-time associate position, the airport manager made several "ageist comments" to Indge, according to the EEOC.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Elkton, accusing the Cecil County town of firing an assistant town administrator because of his age. The age discrimination lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, claims Elkton laid off Andrew P. Johnson because he was 70, even though he had received strong performance evaluations, the EEOC said Thursday. The EEOC contends that Johnson was replaced by two younger employees, one in her 20s and another in his 40s. Johnson was hired as the assistant town administrator and finance director in 1999 and fired in November 2007.

Baltimore County has asked a judge to suspend proceedings in an age-discrimination case, saying in federal court filings that determining damages owed to employees and retirees could be a "lengthy, costly and complex" process that requires the review of 10,000 pension files. County officials think it could take at least two years to determine how much people are owed in the case, according to the court documents. U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg ruled last month that the county's pension system discriminates because older workers had to pay more toward their retirement than younger workers.

A former Anne Arundel County teacher has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the school system, contending that she was systematically bypassed for promotion in favor of younger applicants and faced retribution when she complained. Christine Davenport, 62, claims in a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this week that the county school system retaliated against her when she lodged complaints two years ago alleging that her seniority prevented her from getting a job as assistant principal.

If you've been denied promotion because of your age and you work at a company with 20 or more employees, you may have a claim for age discrimination. Federal law protects people 40 and older against discrimination in employment. And increasingly courts are receptive to claims of older workers. Remedies include back pay, promotions and attorneys' fees.To succeed in an age discrimination lawsuit, you will have to prove you were qualified for the promotions you wanted and would have gotten them were it not for your age.Gather information to support your case -- copies of work assignments, notes or letters praising a job well done; favorable performance reviews; your salary history.

A 59-year-old teacher writes that he suddenly lost his job after 35 years of stellar performance. A secretary in her 60s is convinced her much younger boss is making her life miserable so she'll quit. And a 40-something lawyer, now job hunting, complains that interviewers ask whether she can take "direction."All three think they are victims of age discrimination -- and maybe they are. There's a lot of it going around these days, although it gets much less attention than other forms of prejudice.

Baltimore County has asked a judge to suspend proceedings in an age-discrimination case, saying in federal court filings that determining damages owed to employees and retirees could be a "lengthy, costly and complex" process that requires the review of 10,000 pension files. County officials think it could take at least two years to determine how much people are owed in the case, according to the court documents. U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg ruled last month that the county's pension system discriminates because older workers had to pay more toward their retirement than younger workers.

In a decision that could affect thousands of active and retired Baltimore County employees, a federal judge ruled that the county's pension system discriminates against beneficiaries because older workers were required to pay more toward their retirement than younger workers. U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg sided with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, finding that the county system violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It is unclear what the financial impact on the county could be because the court has not determined damages in the case.

The way politicians talk, one would think that the only issues that matter to Americans over 55 or 60 are Social Security and Medicare. Of course, the future of these programs is enormously important to the well-being of older citizens (and everyone else who one day will be old), and their runaway costs threaten the nation's long-term budgetary health. But most of the 60 million Americans between the ages of 55 and 75 have other things on their minds than what will happen to these two huge entitlement programs.

A former Anne Arundel County teacher has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the school system, contending that she was systematically bypassed for promotion in favor of younger applicants and faced retribution when she complained. Christine Davenport, 62, claims in a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this week that the county school system retaliated against her when she lodged complaints two years ago alleging that her seniority prevented her from getting a job as assistant principal.

Bond Street Social has reversed a policy to restrict admission to those over 23 after 10 p.m.,  the new Fells Point lounge and restaurant said today. Earlier : Can Bond Street Social restrict admission based on age? No, in short. Bond Street Social, the new bar and restaurant in Fells Point, has been open now for a week, and seems to be pulling in big crowds. It's a change of pace for the space, which its previous owners, DuClaw Brewing Company , had complained suffered from sluggish business.

Editor: The U.S. has made great strides in the area of civil rights. Over the past 100 years, numerous laws have been passed to protect citizens from discrimination based on religion, sex, race, age, disability and veteran status. These laws include the 19th amendment to the Constitution, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

Age discrimination is running rampant in America, and people older than 50 should take full advantage of it. Price discounts abound for the more mature crowd, but you have to know where to look. Joan Rattner Heilman knows. She has written the 2007-2008 edition of Unbelievably Good Deals and Great Adventures That You Absolutely Can't Get Unless You're Over 50. It's important information for the nearly one in four Americans older than 50. Their ranks are swelling every day, and businesses have noticed this group and its huge buying power.

A telecommunications company has settled an age-discrimination lawsuit about its Mid-Atlantic hiring practices for $1 million, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Monday. The federal agency said Cavalier Telephone had made a practice since 2003 of skipping over applicants age 40 or older for sales jobs, saying "both verbally and in writing that the company was looking for candidates for its sales positions who were 'recent college graduates,' and in their 'early 20s or 30s.'" It's illegal to make hiring decisions based solely on age, the EEOC said.