Age Discrimination in Employment Act Protects Workers Over 40 from Job Discrimination

On December 15, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), prohibiting employment discrimination against workers aged 40 to 65 (later extended to all workers over 40). The law banned discrimination in hiring, firing, compensation, and terms of employment based on age, establishing that older workers had legal protections comparable to those created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The ADEA responded to a 1965 Department of Labor report, “The Older American Worker: Age Discrimination in Employment,” which Secretary W. Willard Wirtz submitted to Congress. The report documented pervasive discrimination: more than half of all private-sector job openings explicitly excluded older workers, regardless of their qualifications. Employers used arbitrary age cutoffs, often refusing to hire anyone over 35 or 40 for entry-level positions.

The report found that age discrimination differed from race or gender discrimination in important ways. It was often based on unfounded assumptions about older workers’ capabilities rather than explicit animus. Employers believed older workers were less productive, more costly to insure, and harder to train—beliefs contradicted by research showing older workers were often more reliable and experienced.

Business groups including the Chamber of Commerce opposed the legislation, arguing that employers needed flexibility to manage workforce age composition. They warned that the law would create litigation and interfere with legitimate business decisions. The final legislation reflected these concerns through significant limitations: it covered only employers with 20 or more employees, allowed age-based distinctions in bona fide seniority systems, and permitted mandatory retirement at age 65.

The ADEA was part of the broader civil rights expansion of the 1960s, extending anti-discrimination principles beyond race to additional protected categories. Later amendments in 1978 and 1986 raised and then eliminated the mandatory retirement age for most workers, strengthening protections. However, age discrimination remained difficult to prove and continued to be pervasive, with the law’s protections often inadequate against subtle bias and disparate impact policies that disproportionately affected older workers.