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Question regarding age discrimination in applying for jobs online

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OliveStreet

Junior Member
Greetings,

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I've been filling out a lot of job applications online lately because that is the only option given. It seems employers are asking for far too much personal information than is necessary. For instance, several force an applicant to agree to allow a background, criminal and financial check. I can understand all this if they are seriously considering making an offer to a potential candidate, but I don't think this is appropriate information to be asking someone who is simply applying for a job.

But my real question is this: In many of these online applications, my age is asked and is in a "required" field. In other words, if I do not submit my age, I cannot submit the application. Now that I am closing in on the fifty-year old mark, how I can know for sure that my application isn't being tossed in the circular filing cabinet the moment a screener sees my age? As you might expect, after providing all this personal information I have yet to hear back from anyone. Yet I am perfectly qualified for many of the positions I am applying for?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
As a 52 year old who does primarily contract work, I am not unfamiliar with the problem. However, here's the difficulty - at the present time, the percentage of job seekers is higher than it's been in a generation, or more. For every job opening, there are several hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants, and no I am not exaggerating even a little. How do you propose to show that you are not being invited for interviews because of your age, and not because you are only one of a couple of hundred fully qualified applicants?
 

Hot Topic

Senior Member
If you're applying for a job as an accountant, the company has every right to know that you were never charged with embezzlement. Would you want a convicted sex offender working as a teacher's aid in your child's school? Knowing that a background check is going to be done is meant to scare some of these people off.

You can't know if you're being discriminated against. If you don't know that employers are receiving so many applications (there are 145,000 people out of work in my city), that some aren't being read, you must have just lost your job.
 

Ozark_Sophist

Senior Member
For most positions, an employer should not ask an applicants age other than "are you over the age of 18? Y/N." Can you imagine if an application asked for the race of applicant as a must answer question?

See The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

Also http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2007/julqtr/29cfr1625.5.htm
[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 4]
[Revised as of July 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR1625.5]

[Page 325]

TITLE 29--LABOR

CHAPTER XIV--EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

PART 1625_AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT--Table of Contents

Subpart A_Interpretations

Sec. 1625.5 Employment applications.

A request on the part of an employer for information such as ``Date
of Birth'' or ``State Age'' on an employment application form is not, in
itself, a violation of the Act. But because the request that an
applicant state his age may tend to deter older applicants or otherwise
indicate discrimination based on age, employment application forms which
request such information will be closely scrutinized to assure that the
request is for a permissible purpose and not for purposes proscribed by
the Act. That the purpose is not one proscribed by the statute should be
made known to the applicant, either by a reference on the application
form to the statutory prohibition in language to the following effect:

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits
discrimination on the basis of age with respect to individuals who are
at least 40 years of age,'' or by other means. The term ``employment
applications,'' refers to all written inquiries about employment or
applications for employment or promotion including, but not limited to,
r[eacute]sum[eacute]s or other summaries of the applicant's background.
It relates not only to written preemployment inquiries, but to inquiries
by employees concerning terms, conditions, or privileges of employment
as specified in section 4 of the Act.

[46 FR 47726, Sept. 29, 1981, as amended at 53 FR 5972, Feb. 29, 1988]
 
Last edited:

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
For most positions, an employer should not ask an applicants age other than "are you over the age of 18? Y/N." Can you imagine if an application asked for the race of applicant as a must answer question?

See The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

Also Section
Ozark -
The important part of what you posted is:

A request on the part of an employer for information such as ``Date
of Birth'' or ``State Age'' on an employment application form is not, in
itself, a violation of the Act.
 

Ozark_Sophist

Senior Member
Ozark -
The important part of what you posted is:

A request on the part of an employer for information such as ``Date
of Birth'' or ``State Age'' on an employment application form is not, in
itself, a violation of the Act.
No. The entire section is important. Drawing that one part as the key portion neglects the intent of the section. Asking for an applicants age must be legally defensable and for a permissable purpose.
 

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