Age Discrimination in the Workplace Hurts Everyone

When I read the recent story about Lisa LaFlamme, the prominent 58-year-old Canadian news anchor who was reportedly fired for letting her hair go gray, I was both stunned and appalled.?Unfortunately, I was not all that surprised.?Ageism is prevalent throughout society.

Several years ago, I wrote a book, Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age, in which I encouraged readers to challenge outdated stereotypes and attitudes toward aging and spark new solutions to empower people to choose how they live as they age. At AARP, we’ve been on a crusade to do just that. We are making progress, and the number and wide range of people who have spoken out in support Lisa LaFlamme is evidence of that.

But, age discrimination, especially in the workplace and especially against women, continues to plague our society.?A recent AARP survey helps paint the broader picture.?It found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of women age 50-plus feel discriminated against regularly, and 81% of them have felt pressured to look or act a certain way at work with?roughly one in four (23%) reporting that they feel some pressure at work to dye their hair to cover the gray.

And, this doesn’t only affect women over 50.?Sixty percent of working women age 18-49 have reported experiencing age discrimination, and two-thirds (67%) of working women age 18-plus reported experiencing discrimination at work that impacted their earnings potential.

AARP has found that while many employers embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, they don’t view age as part of that equation.?This doesn’t make any sense.

The time has come for employers to double down on efforts to end age discrimination in the workplace.?Since George Floyd’s death over two years ago, many employers have stepped up efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion and have spoken out publicly against racism.?But AARP has found that while many employers embrace DEI, they don’t view age as part of that equation.?This doesn’t make any sense.?If it is wrong and counterproductive to discriminate based on the color of one’s skin, isn’t it also wrong and counterproductive to discriminate based on the color of one’s hair?

The good news is that more companies are beginning to realize the value of a multigenerational workforce. In an AARP survey of nearly 6,000 global companies, 83 percent of respondents identified a multigenerational workforce as valuable to their organization’s success and growth.?They recognize that there is a strong business case for age diversity—just as there is for racial, ethnic and gender diversity—and that their businesses will benefit from having a workforce that is representative of the consumer at-large that understands their needs, desires and pain points—and those consumers are increasingly older and female. ??

The bad news is that very few of them have a strategy in place to create more age diversity in their workforce. At AARP, we’re working hard to correct that.?We have developed our Growing with Age digital platform and launched several other initiatives to help employers around the world unlock the power of a multigenerational workforce.

The story of Lisa LaFlamme (and the thousands more that go untold everyday) shows that we still have a long way to go in combatting age discrimination, not only in the workplace, but in all aspects of society.?It is not only morally wrong; it is also economically harmful and socially unacceptable.?

George Washington Carver once wrote: “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong.?Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”?As we commemorate this Labor Day, we should all take heed of Carver’s words.?For when we practice age discrimination, or allow it to go unchecked, in the long run, we are only hurting ourselves.