Age Discrimination and Severance Agreements

The Older Worker Benefit Protection Act is what the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act is referred to. It is required of employers to provide employees who are terminated as a group with the ages of the group within a 5-10 year age range in order for the employees to adequately know or suspect that age is a factor in a layoff.

These lists show the ages of other people being laid off, and are supposed to be available so workers over 40 can evaluate whether there might be age discrimination in the layoff because there is a disproportionate effect on persons over 40 before they sign a severance agreement.

Statistical analysis will have to be performed in order to determine if a layoff has a disproportionate effect on persons over 40, particularly over persons 50, or any age in the protected category over 40. In order for information to be statistically significant, the sample size has to be a lot more than thirty or fifty in order to be statistically accurate. Layoffs involving only a few people may, nonetheless, be discriminatory based upon age if the persons involved in the layoffs made concerted decisions to fire older people.

Age discrimination also comes into layoff decisions when there is an interest in getting rid of the highest paid people, the people most likely to retire soonest, the people who are no longer raising a family, have the highest costs for medical insurance, or referred to as part of an old culture, or are thought not to have as up-to-date technological skills.