In the previous blog in this series on age discrimination, I pointed out the necessity of employers recruiting and retaining older workers in the future. By 2020, workers over 55 will make up almost one-quarter of the workforce. If you like to hire only young, fresh, cool (and cheap) workers, in the next decade you will find that you don’t have enough people to fill all the jobs in your workplace.

But as you are employing older workers, you have to be careful that you don’t get tripped up by claims of age discrimination. I always tell the corporate and civic groups to whom I am speaking that age discrimination cases scare me more than any other kind of case.

Why? Because the fear of growing old and being considered useless is universal. Every jury member can empathize with the older plaintiff who claims that he was retired against his will to make way for some young “whippersnapper.” Also age discrimination cases are expensive to fight and expensive to lose. According to Jury Verdict Research, age discrimination cases yield the highest dollar amount verdicts of all employment cases.

So every employer should be aware of ways in which you can avoid ageism claims, both now during an economic downturn (when the number or discrimination lawsuits goes up) and as the older worker population grows. First, consider your hiring practices and resist the following mistakes: Continue reading Avoiding Ageism Claims, Part 2 →