The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which turns 41 this year, was recently evaluated by David Neumark of the University of CA at Irvine for AARP. The law, designed to eliminate employment-based age discrimination for those aged 40 to 70, now covers 81 million people in the US. Unfortunately, evidence seems to point to continued discrimination against older workers. 

Potential areas for improvement include:

• protecting older workers from discrimination after they leave full-time careers when they are looking for ‘bridge’ jobs
• increase the effectiveness of the law in dealing with discriminatory hiring practices
• protecting older workers who experience work-limiting disabilities from employment discrimination

Read a synopsis or download the full report.