Sharon Stephens selects her professional couture carefully before she goes on an in-person interview. She wants to look hip, but serious; energetic, yet composed.
To build that image, she dons a stylish suit with heels, light makeup, manicured nails and enough hair dye to wash over any strands of gray. The 69-year-old says she can’t afford to look dowdy or over-the-hill. She wants to impress potential employers with her experience rather than deter them with her age.
Stephens has been looking for a job for at least a year after a Nashua nonprofit eliminated her longtime director’s position. Financial constraints compelled her to sell her home in Nashua, and she currently lives in Saco, Maine. “But I’d move back to New Hampshire in a heartbeat,” she says.
In addition to networking, Stephens spends a few hours every day browsing online job postings. She’s applied online for at least 60 positions this year, typing in forms that often request the date of her high school graduation. She wonders if that information funnels her application into the reject pile. (Most of the staffing professionals interviewed for this article commented that this is not a standard request.)
She bristles as she recalls interviewers’ questions about her knowledge of software applications and digital media: “They ask as if they expect I’m clueless,” she says. “And then I tell them about my blog.”
While she doesn’t blame ageism for losing her last job, she says it plays a role in her chances of getting a new one.
And she is not alone.
Age Discrimination Charges Rising
Stephens belongs to a growing constituency of older adults who experience age discrimination in the workplace. Usually, the bias manifests itself in subtle gestures, such as remarks about “teaching an old dog new tricks.” Other triggers are less subtle, such as losing a job offer to a younger candidate, or cost-cutting layoffs that impact substantially more of the senior than junior staff.
Nationally, age discrimination charges represent one quarter of all workplace discrimination allegations, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Between 1997 and 2014 the number of legal complaints rose 30 percent from 15,785 to 20,588. The increase is partly because the population of older workers is growing. More people are living longer and working later in life—and not simply out of financial necessity.
In NH, the labor force among those from age 55 to 64 jumped 44 percent in the last decade, from 97,000 to 140,000. That spike is likely to continue. In fact, in an AARP-NH survey, 87 percent of those over 50 plan to work long past retirement age, saying that work keeps them motivated, engaged and in touch with the world.
The NH Commission for Human Rights reports that age discrimination complaints rank third behind disability and gender, trumping other types of workplace biases related to sex, race, religion and marital status. Joni Esperian, who directs the Commission, says the number of complaints has remained steady in the last five years.
Lauren Simon Irwin, an employment attorney with Upton & Hatfield in Concord, represents clients who perceive personnel decisions being made as a result of ageism. While she acknowledges that age discrimination is a reality, Irwin says that when individuals file legal complaints they are typically settled outside of court. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 protects individuals over the age of 40 from encountering reduced wages, a termination or a refusal to hire based on their age.
“Without clear evidence, there’s no case,” she says. This became more apparent when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that workers had to prove that age was the sole determinant for a dismissal or demotion, rather than a contributing factor.
More often than not, Irwin negotiates an agreement where employers accused of age bias compensate the individuals voicing the complaints. Seldom do individuals get their jobs back. “The level of severance agreement varies tremendously depending on factors such as salary, years of employment and strength of evidence of discrimination,” Irwin says.
Engaging in a legal battle is no picnic for corporations, and many will go to great lengths to avoid them. Jim Reidy, a labor and employment attorney with Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green in Manchester, representing management, says employers should ward off potential lawsuits by offering severance packages in exchange for a signed waiver that releases the company from any type of discrimination charges, including ageism.
Reidy says that on average, he prepares three general releases a week for his clients and has been doing so for the last 20 years.
Fewer Open Doors
Older adults often face a longer road back to employment than their younger counterparts. And like Joan Bastek of Gonic, they’re more willing to accept a paycut, according to an AARP report, and in some cases, they have no choice. Bastek, 60, accrued more than 35 years of experience in medical billing but has been out of work since September due to a merger and subsequent layoff. She sees plenty of jobs that complement her qualifications and gets interviews after submitting her resume, which doesn’t list her professional history prior to 1987. When hiring managers meet her in person, she says they quickly calculate her approximate age and compute that she is less valuable, yet more expensive. If ageism isn’t the culprit, Bastek says, she can’t imagine what is. “My savings are almost gone,” says Bastek. “If I don’t get a job next month, I don’t know how I’ll pay my bills.”
Other job hunters over age 50 say they don’t find as many positions that provide a good match. Take 50-year-old David Hunt of Nashua. He’s a mechanical engineer who left a long-held job in Billerica in 2012 to test the waters of a more entrepreneurial culture at a company in Manchester. Although the job listing described the environment as “rewarding and intense,” he wasn’t prepared to work weekends and nights like the rest of the staff. After two and a half months, he was let go. He hasn’t worked full time since. Hunt can’t claim ageism for the reasons why he hasn’t found a full-time job, but he suspects that comments like “you might not fit in with our fast-paced environment” are code phrases for “we don’t think you have enough vim and vigor.” Another one of his hurdles is salary requirements. “I have two masters degrees,” he says, “I don’t come cheap.”
The reality is, fewer jobs open up at the top of an organization’s pyramid, compared to the middle or bottom, says Barry Roy, the Northern New England manager for the Robert Half staffing agency. Roy says it’s only logical that experienced individuals requiring larger compensation packages will face a longer search.
Layoffs or job rejections aren’t always bad news for older workers. Sometimes they open the door to a new path altogether, leading to more independence
and flexibility. When a UMass-Lowell professor asked Hunt to take over his classes during a sabbatical, Hunt grabbed the opportunity. He’s now teaching mechanical engineering at two different colleges, and while his earnings aren’t at previous levels, he says he can eke by if he adds a consulting gig or two to the adjunct teaching. While he enjoys the work, he would prefer a full-time job.
Myths of the Older Worker
It’s true that experienced employees cost more. And age often aligns with experience. But it’s also closely tied with higher levels of productivity, says Peter Cappelli, who directs the Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and co-wrote “Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare the New Organizational Order.”
Salary studies suggest that older workers earn more, but Cappelli points out that these wages are not substantially more. In AARP’s study, “Ahead of the Curve,” full-time employees over age 55 make about 8 percent more than equivalent full-time employees between the ages of 25 to 54.
Those slightly higher salaries, though, come with institutional knowledge that older workers can share with the rest of the staff. When junior employees harness that knowledge via digital media, they ensure that valued expertise remains with the organization when senior workers retire. “Mentoring relationships create a win-win situation,” says David Ciullo, president of Career Management Associates in Bedford.
Older workers file more health insurance claims and are also perceived as higher health risks. However, Cappelli explains that their insurance policies typically don’t cover as many dependents as their younger counterparts, and they don’t receive maternity benefits, making their overall coverage less expensive. Additionally, employees over the age of 65 are covered under the federal Medicare program, further lowering medical costs.
Studies find no inverse relationships between age and performance. When companies get rid of senior staff to lessen the burden on their payroll, they jeopardize eliminating the people who are often the most loyal, engaged and knowledgeable.
“Companies that fail to adapt to societal changes,” says Cappelli, “including increased diversity and aging populations, risk stagnation that comes from being mired in the old way of doing things.”
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