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State Age Protection Laws and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act

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  • Joanna Lahey

Abstract

Some anti-discrimination laws have the perverse effect of harming the very class they were meant to protect. This paper provides evidence that age discrimination laws belong to this perverse class. It exploits an unusual aspect of the policy for enforcement of the federal 1968 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which made filing an age discrimination claim less burdensome in some states than in others. After the enforcement of the federal law, white male workers over age 50 in states where the federal government allowed 300 days to file a discrimination complaint worked between 1 and 1.5 fewer weeks per year than did workers in states without laws. These men were also .3 percentage points more likely to be retired and .2 percentage points less likely to be hired. These findings suggest that in an anti-age discrimination environment, firms seek to avoid litigation through means not intended by the legislation — by not employing older workers in the first place.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Lahey, 2006. "State Age Protection Laws and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2006-24, Center for Retirement Research, revised Nov 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2006-24
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    Cited by:

    1. Todd Morris & Benoit Dostie, 2023. "Graying and staying on the job: The welfare implications of employment protection for older workers," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 15, Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute.
    2. David Neumark & Joanne Song, 2012. "Barriers to Later Retirement: Increases in the Full Retirement Age, Age Discrimination, and the Physical Challenges of Work," Working Papers wp265, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    3. Nicole M Lindner & Alexander Graser & Brian A Nosek, 2014. "Age-Based Hiring Discrimination as a Function of Equity Norms and Self-Perceived Objectivity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, January.
    4. Graves, Jennifer & Trond, Christopher, 2024. "Employment discrimination and labor market protections for sexual minorities in Brazil," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Patrick Button & Philip Armour & Simon Hollands, 2023. "Estimating the Effects of the ADA Amendments Act on the Hiring and Termination of Individuals with Disabilities, Using New Disability Categorizations," Upjohn Working Papers 22-377, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    6. Bell, David N.F. & Rutherford, Alasdair C., 2013. "Older workers and working time," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 1, pages 28-34.
    7. Phijaisanit, Euamporn, 2015. "How can promoting desirable elderly employment opportunities alleviate the shortfalls of Thailand’s ageing society?," MPRA Paper 89824, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    8. Srikant Devaraj & Pankaj C. Patel, 2022. "State bans on pay secrecy and earnings: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 697-734, December.
    9. Joanna N. Lahey & Douglas R. Oxley, 2021. "Discrimination at the Intersection of Age, Race, and Gender: Evidence from an Eye‐Tracking Experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(4), pages 1083-1119, September.
    10. Neumark, David & Song, Joanne, 2013. "Do stronger age discrimination laws make Social Security reforms more effective?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-16.
    11. Melissa Boyle & Stacy Nazzaro & Debra O’Connor, 2010. "Moral rights protection for the visual arts," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(1), pages 27-44, February.
    12. Heywood, John S. & Siebert, W. Stanley, 2009. "Understanding the Labour Market for Older Workers: A Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 4033, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Joanne Song McLaughlin, 2020. "Falling Between the Cracks: Discrimination Laws and Older Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(2), pages 215-238, June.
    14. Ian Burn, 2018. "Not All Laws are Created Equal: Legal Differences in State Non-Discrimination Laws and the Impact of LGBT Employment Protections," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 462-497, December.
    15. David Neumark & Patrick Button, 2014. "Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 566-601, June.
    16. Joanna Lahey, 2008. "State Age Protection Laws and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(3), pages 433-460, August.
    17. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2015. "The German Labor Market for Older Workers in Comparative Perspective," Research Papers in Economics 2015-02, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    18. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button & Nanneh Chehras, 2016. "Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce Age Discrimination in Hiring? Experimental (and Nonexperimental) Evidence," Working Papers wp349, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    19. Burn, Ian & Kettler, Kyle, 2019. "The more you know, the better you’re paid? Evidence from pay secrecy bans for managers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 92-109.
    20. Talia Fisher & Tamar Kricheli‐Katz & Issi Rosen‐Zvi & Theodore Eisenberg, 2016. "He Paid, She Paid: Exploiting Israeli Courts' Rulings on Litigation Costs to Explore Gender Biases," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(3), pages 536-561, September.
    21. David Neumark & Joanne Song & Patrick Button, 2015. "Does Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired? Revised with Additional Analysis of SIPP Data and Appendix of Disability Laws," Working Papers wp315, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    22. Nishimura, Yoshinori, 2016. "Did Government Intervention on Firm’s Employment Policies Have an Effect on the Employment of Elderly Workers?," MPRA Paper 73444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Courtney C. Coile, 2015. "Economic Determinants Of Workers’ Retirement Decisions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 830-853, September.
    24. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2016. "The hiring and employment of older workers in Germany: a comparative perspective [Die Beschäftigung und Neueinstellung älterer Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland: Eine vergleichende Perspektive]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 49(4), pages 349-366, December.
    25. Suyoun Han & Morris M. Kleiner, 2021. "Analyzing the Influence of Occupational Licensing Duration and Grandfathering on Wage Determination," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 147-187, April.

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    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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