reflective summary

Reflective Summary of Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
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Reflective Summary of Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) provides insightful details regarding the discrimination of employees above the age of 40. The Act was enacted to facilitate the employment of older persons according to their abilities rather than age. The act provides a feasible method upon which employees can be guaranteed of no discrimination when they opt to seek alternative employment when in their late years especially above the age of 40. The act applies to employers that have twenty or more employees for a given working day. Besides, the law also ensures that employers are not discriminative against such employees in terms of compensation, whereby others would cite incompetence or low productivity attributed to their age. The act also provides guidance that prohibits discrimination in employee benefit plans including pension and health coverage. The provision of such options plays instrumental roles in ensuring that even persons above the age of forty can remain productive in today’ economy. It ensures that the society does not discriminate against such persons on the basis of the inability to stay productive in the community.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the provisions of the ADEA law are followed. Having a central control that would ensure no discrimination of the potential workforce provides an ideal platform upon which persons above the age of forty can lodge their complaints to ensure that they are not denied a chance to remain productive in the society.

For instance, the enforcement of the ACT ensures that persons above the age of forty years can remain productive when they have the requisite skills for the posts advertised.
Some of the reasons given by employers for their discriminative practices are that employees above the age of forty are less likely to be as productive as their counterparts at work. Apparently, older employees are less conversant with technology and thus would less likely adapt to its usage compared to young people. Employers also look at the duration that would be spent by the potential employee in their firms. Apparently, older employees are likely to retire at an earlier age compared to the young people. The costs incurred in pension and other compensation costs for such employees tend to be much higher. As a result, companies opt to hire young persons who still have several years of productivity. The chance also ensures that they work in their businesses for longer durations. Finally, the health of older persons is also an issue of concern. It is presumed that older persons are more likely to be candidates for health conditions such as pressure, diabetes and similar conditions. The costs incurred in absenteeism and medical cover costs tend to be high for such employees as compared to when working with young persons. Employers who discriminate against such older employees decry that the costs of maintaining them in their firms is so high and would thus refrain from hiring them. The enactment of the ADEA act played an instrumental role in safeguarding the interests of such employees. It ensures that old persons are not denied a chance of employment as long as they have the relevant credentials and skills to perform.
The government is charged with the responsibility of taking care of the welfare of all its employees. Accordingly, the ADEA act aims at protecting the interests of all employees irrespective of their background. The only way that the society can reduce the dependence of older persons is by economically empowering them. In societies whereby old persons are left without alternative sources of income, the families are always left to grapple with the challenges of providing for them and meeting their health costs. Most of the times, such burdens are also passed to their families who at most times have to grapple with alternative sources of income. Thus, imposing the ADEA act ensures that the society can bring up self-sufficient families.
Accordingly, the qualifications of different sets of employees differ. Also, individuals above the age of forty are more likely to remain loyal at work compared to the younger generation. The millennials prefer exploiting a variety of working environments in search of adventure and better pay. Besides, the terms of operation for the millennials differ with those of other generations. Millenials are more carefree and rarely pay attention to the delicate details of their work. A typical example is the way young people relate with life through social media. As a result, employers should consider the need to avoid discriminating employees based on age.
Providing equal opportunities for employment plays instrumental roles in brewing diversity in the workplace. An ideal firm should have a mix of employees from different age brackets. The analysis indicates that different categories of age groups respond differently to their work. In effect, an employer who wants to enjoy the benefit of all the age groups should consider the need to integrate the efforts of all categories of employees into their workplace. Besides, the changing landscape of education systems implies that employers can only derive the gains of having older employees in their firms when they have an open hiring policy, which would ensure that individuals are not denied a chance to employment through discrimination.