Discrimination

• Overview
• Age Discrimination
• Congressional Accountability Act
• Disability Discrimination
• Family Responsibilities Discrimination
• Gender Discrimination
• National Origin Discrimination
• Political Affiliation Discrimination
• Pregnancy Discrimination
• Race Discrimination
• Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Age Discrimination

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), as well as certain state and local laws, prohibits age-based workplace discrimination against an employee age 40 and over. An employer may not, for example, give less favorable treatment or job opportunities to an employee because of his or her age, target older employees during a layoff, or pressure older workers to retire. Age discrimination cases are sometimes difficult to prove. On June 19, 2009, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services that significantly weakened the ADEA’s protection against age-based discrimination. In Gross, the Court held that in so-called “mixed-motive” cases where an employee alleges that age was one of several reasons for an adverse personnel action, the employee must show that age was actually the deciding factor in the employer’s decision to treat the employee differently from younger employees. This means that employees affected by age discrimination will now have the difficult task of distinguishing age from any number of other factors that may have influenced the employer’s decision. In response, advocates for employees’ rights are now looking to Congress to amend the ADEA or create new legislation to overrule the Court’s decision.

In spite of the Gross decision and other challenges facing ADEA plaintiffs, Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP attorneys have experience in successfully handling such claims. To learn more about employee rights under the ADEA, see the firm’s informational “Know Your Rights” article on age discrimination.

If you are experiencing – or have already experienced – age discrimination that you are thinking about reporting, or if you have already reported discrimination and are facing retaliation, contact the experienced lawyers at Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP for an evaluation of your case with no further obligation.