Careers: Unmasking Age Bias

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Jim McElyea lost his job as general counsel of a major consumer-products company in 1996 supposedly because of downsizing--but he never knew for sure. It wasn't until five months ago that he finally found full-time work again, as general counsel of White Cap, a container maker based in Downers Grove, Ill.--but at a salary a third below the six-figure income he earned in his old job. Some prospective employers even refused to interview him, McElyea, 50, reports, although he asked for no more money than applicants with 10 to 15 years less experience. Meanwhile, his former company promoted a 36-year-old to fill his allegedly eliminated job. "I suffer from having gray hair and a lack of hair," says McElyea. "There's a perception that younger people have more energy and are agents of change."

But isn't age bias in employment every bit as illegal as race or sex discrimination? Officially, yes, and McElyea briefly considered his legal options. But he knew only too well what forbidding odds he would face in a lawsuit. He had defended the company against many age-discrimination suits and beaten every one. "There is real bias out there," says McElyea, but it is hard to prove.

Right on both counts. The unemployment rate, 4.5% in July, is close to a 28-year low, and anecdotes abound of employers desperate to put any warm body on the payroll. But people in their 60s or 50s--and sometimes even in their 40s--still have inordinate trouble holding on to the well-paid and responsible positions they have spent long careers working up to or finding jobs commensurate with their abilities and experience. Moreover, recent court decisions have made age bias even harder to prove than at any other time during the 31 years the Age Discrimination in Employment Act has been on the books.

To be sure, there are people who deny nearly all the above. "There is no major age discrimination in recruiting," says Ruth Graham, who owns a Washington employment agency. There is much less today than there was 20 years ago, anyway, says Shirley Brussell, 77. She is executive director of Operation ABLE, a Chicago-based employment and training agency that specializes in helping job seekers age 50 and above and proves by its mere existence that older workers get more assistance now than they once did.

On the other hand, the American Association of Retired Persons finds age discrimination still "pervasive." In a not-yet-published study, it dispatched pairs of "testers," one 57 and one 32, to apply for 102 entry-level sales or management positions. Result: though they presented equal credentials, says AARP, the older applicants received less favorable responses 41.2% of the time. Three-quarters of those responses occurred before the older applicants had even been granted an interview. Sally Dunaway, an AARP lawyer, says bias is hurting "people at younger and younger ages. It used to be 65. Now it is 55, 48 or even 42."

In fact, the picture is mixed. Though often disguised, age bias obviously persists even in a supposedly desperately labor-short economy. There is too much anecdotal evidence to permit real doubt. But it is hard to determine its extent or whether it is increasing or decreasing, since anecdotal evidence is about all there is.