Many women in California plan to continue working after the age of 60, but finding a new job during those years can be difficult. According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, there is a lot of evidence that older women experience more age discrimination in the hiring process than older men.
The age discrimination study was conducted by researchers from the University of California-Irvine and Tulane University. The researchers submitted 40,000 job applications from mock applicants in three different age groups. Applications from women between the ages of 64 and 66 were less likely to receive callbacks than applications from men in the same age group.
While the study found that there is a significant difference in the rate of male and female age discrimination, it also showed that older job applicants are discriminated against in general. Evidence from the study found that the callback rate for older job applicants was around 35 percent lower than the callback rate for younger job applicants. The study authors say that discrimination against middle-aged job candidates is much less severe than discrimination against job candidates in their 60s.
Discriminating against job applicants who are over the age of 40 is illegal. For job applicants who believe that they were turned down for a position because of their age, it may be possible to find an attorney who could assist them in filing a workplace discrimination claim. An older worker who has been passed over for a promotion or replaced with a younger worker may also decide to file a claim.
