Some companies systematically deny promotions to employees aged 40 and older, or have a similar discriminatory cutoff age, such as age 50 and older, or even age 30 and older. Whether it be that the employer systematically denies promotions to employees of a certain age, or that an individual manager has a bias against employees of a certain age being given promotions, it is illegal discrimination.
Age is a class protected from employment discrimination under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. To establish an age discrimination claim in New Jersey, there is no upper age limit. Unlike the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), you may also be under age 40 to file an age discrimination claim. Under-age-40 age discrimination claims are becoming more common, particularly in certain fields. See NJ Age Discrimination Attorney, Qualified and Experienced IT Specialists Fired Due to Age.
Don’t Sit on Your Rights! If you are a worker who is being discriminated against or being forced out of your job because of age, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. I have represented older employees who discriminated against because of their age and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. This law office accepts cases from all over New Jersey and has locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients. If you think you are being discriminate against because of your age, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.
What must I Show in an Age Discrimination Failure to Promote Claim?
For an age discrimination claim based on a failure to promote, to establish the initial prima facie case under the LAD, you must demonstrate:
1) you are a member of a protected class, i.e., here it based on the protected class of age,
2) you were qualified for and applied the new position for which the employer was seeking applicants. It is here, the “qualified for”, where factual issues might arise. Just because the older employee applied for the promotion and the position was given to someone else, does not necessarily mean it is discrimination: the employee must show that they are qualified for the position. This could be demonstrated by past employee performance evaluations, see Employee Performance Evaluations, years of experience in the field, training other workers, producing a work product that contributed to expanding the company’s profits, etc.,
3) that the employer did not promote the older applicant although the applicant was qualified,
4) that the employer hired someone else for the position that you sought, and the person hired was not in the same protected class as you and the younger person hired had lesser or the same qualifications as you. It is shocking how many employers with age bias, will fill a position with a less qualified person and who has less experience but is younger, rather than fill it with the older and more qualified applicant.
When unscrupulous yet savvy employers know they are going to discriminate against or terminate an older worker, they may give them an unjustified poor performance evaluation, after years of the employee receiving high-grade evaluations. This is to establish a bogus paper trail of a bogus reason for the termination in the event of later having to defend on a subsequent employment age discrimination lawsuit. In the employer’s effort to pressure them to resign, the oldest employees frequently have their work evaluated far more harshly than their younger counterparts. An employer’s sudden downturn of their assessment of the older employee’s work, particularly after giving years of loyal service, makes them undervalued and taken for granted. See NJ Age Discrimination Lawyer, Oldest Worker Unfairly Criticized, Then Given Poor Evaluations.
This bias against promoting older employees is even more significant when one considers how large the workforce of those 40 years of age and older has grown over the last four decades and how many more over 40 years of age are now working full time as opposed to part time.
According to one research center and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1987, only 47% of older workers worked fulltime. However, the U.S. workforce has increasingly aged and over 62% of older workers now are working full time. An increasing number of people 55 and older are remaining in the U.S. workforce. Those aged 65 and older are increasingly employed, representing nearly 19% of the workforce by 2023. By the end of 2024, in the US civilian workforce, workers aged 55 to 64 years of age, comprised 14,055,000 workers in the US workforce; those aged 65 and older comprised 48,097,000 workers in the US workforce; with persons aged 75 years and older numbering 22,563,000 persons who are still working. See New Jersey Age Discrimination Lawyer.
If you resign, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit.
In many instances of discrimination and retaliation, if you resign, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed. If you are thinking of resigning, or think you will be fired, or have been fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options in the safest way for you.
What You Can Do
If you are being subjected to unlawful workplace age discrimination, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I have represented numerous employees who were discriminated against because of their age, and I was successful in recovering multiple six-figure financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering, and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. I accept cases from all over New Jersey and have locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.