Age Discrimination

Discriminating against an employee because of their age is illegal. If you believe you were discriminated against because of your age, and you are over 40 years of age, it is recommended to contact an attorney with significant experience in age discrimination and harassment cases. There are certain skills necessary to prove an age discrimination case, and our attorneys’ experience and knowledge will have a direct impact on the value of your case.

Age discrimination laws do not protect anyone under the age of 40. Therefore, if you were fired because you were “too young”, that action is not illegal.  

Some examples of age discrimination and age harassment may include:

• Teasing the employee about their age
• Making jokes about the employee’s abilities because of their age, such as telling an older employee that they “work slower” or that “they cannot keep up with the technology”
• Firing the older employee because the employer favored a younger employee, while informing the older employee that they were being terminated for “poor work performance”
• Denying the employee opportunities
• Overly monitoring and scrutinizing the employee
• Unfairly disciplining the employee
• Denying the employee benefits
• Forcing the older employee to retire early than they planned on retiring, as opposed to the younger employees
• Terminating/laying off the employee simply because they were entitled to some retirement benefits in the near future due to their age
• Refusing to rehire the employee if they were fired.

The employee bringing forward the claims needs to be able to prove that the employer favored younger employees, and that this caused the employer to treat the older employees differently.

In California, the principal statute governing employment discrimination is the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) (Govt C §§12900–12996). This statute protects the right of all persons to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age (at least 40), military and veteran status, or pregnancy. (Govt C §§12940(a), 12941, 12945(a)). This statute does not only protect paid employees but also extends to individuals who are unpaid interns and volunteers. (Govt C §12940(j)).

Employees who have experienced workplace discrimination in California or who are currently experiencing workplace discrimination in California because of their age may bring forward a claim under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) described above, or under the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. A successful claim may assist the employee in recovering lost wages and benefits, emotional distress damages, as well as an additional financial award for the poor treatment, amongst other awards.

If you believe you have been treated differently because of your age, give us a call at 855-IM-FIRED for a free case evaluation. Our attorneys have substantial experience with these types of cases representing older individuals who have been discriminated against in the past or who are currently experiencing age discrimination.

There are no up-front costs and you do not pay any attorneys’ fees unless we get a recovery in the case.

Contact our Los Angeles California employment attorneys and lawyers now for all of your employee rights’ needs!