What to Believe?

“Age Discrimination in the Workplace Is Not a Problem” and “Age Discrimination in the Workplace Is a Problem” are two articles I found on Opposing Viewpoints. The only difference in their titles is the word “not”. Obviously, one article supports the idea that age discrimination is not present in the work place and the other supports the opposing idea that age discrimination is present in the workplace. If there is support found for both viewpoints, how do we know which one to believe?

In the article claiming age discrimination is not a problem it says, “more than half of unemployed workers age 55 and over have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer.” This suggests that the claim that the elderly are discriminated against is invalid because majority of the elderly who are unemployed have been unemployed for some time now and it had nothing to do with age at the start of unemployment. Also, it claims that the older workforce’s “unemployment rates are lower than workers aged 25 to 64 and workers aged above 16.” This further supports the idea that age discrimination doesn’t exist because the unemployment rates that are highest are in the ages of, what is thought to be, prime working years.

The article claiming age discrimination is a problem fights against these claims. In this article, it says, “according to the latest statistics. In 2009, 22,778 charges were filed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (which protects workers age 40 and over). In 2011, that number rose to 23,465.” If age discrimination did not exist, then why are there such a large number of charges against it? It clearly has to be present if people feel the need to press charges because they believe the Age Discrimination in Employment Act has been violated. The article also points out that this is only the number of charges of formal complaints and that the actual number of cases is much higher and goes unrecognized because age discrimination is difficult to prove so many people don’t file formal complaints.

Although both articles are convincing, I agree with the article that claims age discrimination is a problem in the workplace. I found the article more convincing and I also have found many more articles like this in my research and not many that claim age discrimination is not a problem. Also, the article against age discrimination only focuses on discrimination against older workers but, age discrimination can happen at any age and does happen to people of a variety of ages today.

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