An overlooked prejudice

The last twelve months have seen some significant breakthroughs in the fight against discrimination. The global #MeToo movement put a spotlight on the treatment of women, particularly harassment in the workplace, and here in Australia we saw the historic vote in favour of marriage equality.

But one of the measures in this year’s Budget reminded me of an aspect of discrimination that is often overlooked - age discrimination in the workforce. Among a series of measures targeted at older Australians, including expanded -access to the Government’s reverse-mortgage scheme and an increase to the amount age pensioners can earn without affecting their payment rate, was the expansion of a program which gives subsidies of up to $10,000 to employers who hire Australians aged over 50.

It does seem a sad indictment of the value our society places on life experience that such an incentive is necessary in the first place.

The Human Rights Commission’s most recent survey on age discrimination showed that 1 in 4  Australians over 50 have experienced age discrimination - a number that goes up to 3 in 5 for those who are currently unemployed. Their experiences include being overlooked for promotion, left out of training, and condescended to by colleagues who assume they don’t understand the latest technology. Extraordinarily, nearly 30% of managers surveyed admitted to factoring age into hiring decisions at least occasionally, even though this is illegal.

Another worrying stat; over 30% of people on Newstart are over 50 years of age, meaning they’re unable to save for retirement in those crucial final working years. These figures shine a light on how difficult it is for many Australians aged over 50 who lose a job to find another one.

The flow-on economic effects of underemployment among older Australians are considerable. PwC’s Golden Age Index shows that with only 63% of 55-65 year olds in employment, Australia is lagging far behind the gold standard when it comes the engagement of older people in the workforce. This research shows that if we were to increase employment levels in this age group to equal those of New Zealand’s or Sweden’s (76%), we would boost our GDP by $55bn USD.

But quantifying value through a monetary lens alone doesn’t capture the untapped value of the years of experience, accumulated knowledge and wisdom older Australians bring to their workplaces. Some businesses have grasped this and have made a deliberate play for older workers. Bunnings, where over a quarter of the workforce is over 50, is the most obvious example and makes no secret that hiring older workers is a deliberate commercial strategy.

In contrast, our own industry of professional services has not been immune from the exclusion of older workers. Historically, PwC had a clause in our partnership agreement which required partners to retire at age 55 but I am pleased to say that we removed this clause more than 12 years ago and today, 25% of our partners are aged over 50, our oldest partner is 64, and many of our partners remain actively involved with the firm long after retirement.  

As our workforce ages and life expectancy increases, there are many levers the Government can pull to increase employment among over 50s, and it has already done so as part of pension and superannuation reform. It was also great to see a skills and training incentive in the Budget available to workers between 45-70 whose jobs are at risk from technological change.

But it’s clear age discrimination is a critical piece of the puzzle. While incentives and skills packages help, what we really need is a change of mindset among employers regarding the value older workers can bring to the workplace - the knowledge that comes with a variety of life experiences, the potential as mentors to younger employees, and the potential to better connect with customers in an aging population.

We need a Bunnings-style revolution in our workplaces to ensure the health of our economy, and the well-being of millions of older Australians who are not ready to retire. If we don’t tackle this overlooked prejudice, there is a risk that instead of growing our economy as the retirement age increases, we will only increase the number of older Australians on Newstart.