Age Discrimination

Employment Attorneys Representing Workers Throughout California

It is illegal for your employer to discriminate against you based on your age as long as you are 40 or older. Both federal and state laws prohibit age discrimination. If you were a victim of age discrimination or harassment, you should discuss your situation with the experienced California age discrimination lawyers at The Nourmand Law Firm. Our seasoned employment attorneys may be able to represent you in an age discrimination lawsuit for damages, including past and future wage loss, benefit loss, and emotional distress.

Age Discrimination

Under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), age discrimination claims can only be brought by older people. To show age discrimination, you will need to show that you were 40 or older, you experienced an adverse employment action, and other employees who did not have your protected characteristic were treated differently in a similar situation.

Discrimination could involve failure to promote, termination, failure to hire, disparate pay, reduction in salary, denial of reinstatement, being forced to quit or transfer, harassing behavior, layoffs in which only older employees are let go, or receipt of a negative job evaluation because you were considered old and therefore inflexible. For example, if you were not promoted because the company wants a more “youthful” culture and fresh faces in prestigious customer-facing positions, an age discrimination attorney in California can help you bring a claim. Similarly, if your coworkers call you an old dog and play pranks on you, and when you let HR know, they tell you that the other employees are more valuable, so you need to put up with it, you may have an age harassment lawsuit.

Under both FEHA and the ADEA, it is illegal for employers to discriminate based on age with regard to people who are at least 40 when employers are developing apprenticeships or posting job ads.

Proving Discrimination

It is rare for an employer to simply admit that it is discriminating against you based on your age. However, there are certain signs that an employer’s age discrimination may be behind its actions. If your employer promotes young employees and a young corporate culture, and then it terminates you or fails to promote you, even though you have more experience and knowledge, this may be evidence of discrimination. Similarly, if you and every other employee who was laid off recently had been with the company for years, but are over age 60, you may be able to sue with the assistance of a California age discrimination attorney.

Disparate Impact

Sometimes employers do not explicitly discriminate based on age but implement hiring practices and policies that wind up being discriminatory to employees who are older. These policies may seem neutral on their face but create a disparate or outsize impact on older employees at the company. Under the ADEA, a practice with a disparate impact is prohibited unless an employer can show that it is based on a reasonable factor other than age. The employer needs to make a showing of a reasonable factor other than age after we have identified a particular employment policy or practice that substantially harms older workers more than younger workers. Employment practices are based on a reasonable factor other than age when they are reasonably created and administered to arrive at a valid business purpose, given the circumstances.

Mandatory Retirement

With certain exceptions, FEHA forbids employment retirement plans that include a mandatory retirement age.

Consult a Seasoned Employment Discrimination Attorney

If you were harmed by age discrimination, you should talk to the seasoned attorneys at The Nourmand Law Firm. Our attorneys will work with you to understand every way in which workplace discrimination has adversely affected your life, both materially and emotionally. The age discrimination lawyers at our California firm are committed to analyzing the facts of each lawsuit with depth and rigor. We aim to provide each of our clients with the personalized attention required to position them favorably. We counsel and represent employees in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, as well as Oakland, Sacramento, and other areas. Complete our online form or call us at 310-553-3600.