Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly support your bill to protect older Americans against discrimination.

It is unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, but age discrimination and ageism are still very common in many American workplaces.

During the worst of this pandemic, older workers and women experienced many of the demotions and layoffs that we have heard about so much.

Protections against age discrimination are more important than ever as we seek to ensure that employers do not use someone's age as a motivating factor to deny them a promotion, to demote them, or to even fire them.

When age discrimination occurs, many people do not report it. But when they do, under current law, it is incredibly difficult to prove that age was the motivating factor.

Therefore, Congress must ensure that we do not place burdensome requirements of proof of age discrimination on those who actually bring age discrimination claims to the forefront.

That is why this bill is so very, very important, and I thank the chairman for his tireless efforts on this cause.

While this is an excellent bill, there is one provision I wish we had included that currently is not. In the fight against age discrimination, we need to clearly protect folks at the very first opportunity, the hiring process.

That is why I introduced a bill last week, the Protect Older Job Applicants Act. It simply clarifies that the provisions under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act also apply to job applicants. Most people already assume this is the case. However, it is not.

After two recent Federal court cases about age discrimination, there has been confusion about the applicability of protections to applicants or employees only.

My bill seeks to provide clarity and ultimately protect older Americans from the very beginning, at the application.

I know that this is a priority for the chairman also, and I will continue to work with him to make sure that we continue the conversation on this shared priority, because nobody should be denied a job opportunity solely because of their age.

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Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I also include in the Record a statement of support for this bill from AARP. AARP, June 14, 2021.

Dear Representative: On behalf of our nearly 38 million members and all older Americans nationwide, AARP urges you to vote in support of H.R. 2062, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA), important bipartisan legislation sponsored by Chairman Scott and Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) to restore protections against age discrimination.

Older workers are valuable assets to their employers and the economy. Despite that, 78 percent of older workers reported having seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace in 2020, up markedly from 61 percent in 2018. More than half of older workers are forced out of a job before they intend to retire. Nine out of 10 of those who do find work never again match their prior earnings. Making matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly diminished the job prospects and future retirement security of older workers. In April, over half of job seekers ages 55 and older continued to be long-term unemployed (53.3 percent) compared with 42.3 percent of job seekers ages 16 to 54. The labor force participation rates for older women workers, along with their earning power and future retirement security, have been particularly hard-hit by COVID.

POWADA is a bipartisan, commonsense bill that would restore fairness for older workers. The bill reinstates well- established legal standards on workplace discrimination that were undermined by the 2009 Supreme Court decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. and subsequent discrimination cases. POWADA would help level the playing field for older workers and restore their legal rights. Older Americans have waited for over a decade for this legislation to be enacted.

AARP strongly supports POWADA and urges you to enact it as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, or have your staff contact Michele Varnhagen on our Government Affairs staff. Sincerely, Bill Sweeney, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs.

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