Differential Treatment of Older Workers Due to COVID-19 Accommodations: Potential Issues of Ageism and Age Discrimination

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of employers’ current COVID-19 protective workplace attendance policies toward older workers, potentially creating the outcomes of increased numbers of involuntary retirees and the discouraged older worker syndrome among otherwise qualified older workforce participants. How potential ageist assumptions and age discrimination under COVID-19 affect workplace decisions in reflection on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967) guidelines is discussed. Older workers may remain in the workforce longer than ever before due to having extended life expectancies. Workplace policies need to be increasingly sensitive to older employees’ rights to sustain their workplace engagement (Cummins, 2014; Cummins, Harootyan, & Kunkel, 2015). The author reviewed current unemployment trends in 2020 and emerging litigation in reflection upon general issues of COVID-19 related age discrimination. Specifically, older workers’ workplace attendance decisions by employers were analyzed within the historical framework of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967 significant amendments in 1978 and 1986). The policy analysis paper presents the implications of employers’ COVID-19 protective policies on older workers and how it may affect the “health” of the workplace and older adults and the economy beyond the pandemic. Lastly, strategies to address an “age-friendly” workplace during a pandemic and post-pandemic are discussed.