Protect Older Job Applicants Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAPPAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my amendment to require the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to conduct a study on the number of job applicants impacted by age discrimination and issue recommendations on addressing age discrimination in the job application process.

Nearly half of older job applicants report being asked for age- related information when applying for a job, and three-quarters of workers over the age of 45 lack confidence in their ability to find a new job due to age discrimination.

This poses a significant challenge for workers in my home State of New Hampshire. As a State with an aging workforce, New Hampshire businesses are concerned about both how to attract talent and how to ensure that the institutional knowledge and experience of workers reaching retirement age is passed down. When workers are pushed out of our labor force by age discrimination or by the concern that they may face discrimination, our businesses and communities lose the benefit of their knowledge and experience.

Strengthening age discrimination laws is the right thing to do because it will both protect workers and also serve to help keep them in our labor force at a time when businesses are already struggling to attract talent. In our changing economy, we need to ensure that older workers continue to have opportunities available to them.

We must pass the Protect Older Job Applicants Act to clarify that job applicants can challenge discriminatory hiring practices under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment and help us gain a better understanding of the issues that older job applicants face when applying for jobs and the solutions that are needed to stop discriminatory practices.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record two letters in support of the underlying legislation, one from the American Federation of Government Employees and one from the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations. American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC, September 28, 2021.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), which represents more than 700,000 federal and District of Columbia employees, I urge you to vote for H.R. 3992, the ``Protect Older Job Applicants (POJA) Act of 2021.''

Under existing law, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) only applies to currently employed people seeking recourse in the face of employment discrimination based on age. The ADEA does not cover job applicants who experience age discrimination in hiring, including applicants for federal government positions.

H.R. 3992 extends the protections of the ADEA to external job applicants in addition to employees. Specifically, this legislation would allow job applicants to be able to bring disparate impact discrimination claims under the ADEA. The bill would protect older Americans against employment discrimination that prevent them from even getting a foot in the door. Considering the heightened long-term unemployment struggles older Americans have experienced during the COVID- 19 pandemic, this bill is critically important.

Building on our support for H.R. 1230, the ``Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act,'' AFGE is proud to be a leader in the fight against all forms of employment discrimination including those affecting older Americans. Please support H.R. 3992, the ``Protect Older Job Applicants (POJA) Act of 2021.'' Sincerely, Julie N. Tippens, Director, Legislative Department. ____ Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, Washington, DC, September 28, 2021.

Dear Member of Congress: The Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) is a coalition of 69 national nonprofit organizations concerned with the well-being of America's older population and committed to representing their interests in the policy-making arena. We urge you to strengthen protections for older workers by voting for H.R. 3992, the Protect Older Job Applicants Act (POJA) of 2021. POJA would clarify that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act's (ADEA) prohibition against all forms of employment discrimination based on age covers individuals during the hiring phase of employment.

Age discrimination is pervasive and stubbornly entrenched. It often starts in the hiring process when employers circumvent anti-age discrimination laws by using such tactics as setting a maximum number of years of experience that a prospective employer will consider or setting up screening processes that exclude older applicants. In 2020, 78 percent of older workers reported having seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace--a significant increase from 61 percent in 2018. Age discrimination is also pervasive among older women and African American workers--nearly two thirds of women and three-fourths of African Americans say they have seen or experienced workplace discrimination. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on employment for everyone, with older workers taking a harder hit. Those aged 55+ continue to experience long-term unemployment in greater numbers, with 55.3 percent of older jobseekers unemployed for 27 weeks or more as of June 2021, compared to 36 percent of younger workers. The rates were worse for older workers who were black, female, or who did not have a college degree.

Although the ADEA was meant to apply to all forms of age discrimination in hiring, recent court decisions have narrowly interpreted the applicability of ADEA's protections and have excluded job applicants who are subjected to hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact based on age, such as specifying a maximum number of years of experience. The Protect Older Job Applicants Act would clarify that older workers seeking employment should be protected from all forms of age discrimination in hiring.

We urge Congress to swiftly pass the Protect Older Job Applicants Act and clarify the ADEA's prohibition against hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact on older workers. Sincerely, Katie Smith Sloan, Chair.
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Mr. PAPPAS. Mr. Speaker, I will correct the record again on the fact that the committee did hold a hearing on this subject on March 18, 2021.

At that hearing, Laurie McCann, a senior attorney at AARP Foundation, testified about the erosion of protections for older workers in judicial decisions under the ADEA, including specific mention in her testimony of the Seventh Circuit's Kleber decision and its harmful impact on applicants. So, that is well-documented.

This particular amendment seeks to give us additional information going forward that would be valuable in understanding the plight of older job applicants.

Newman).

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Mr. PAPPAS. Garcia), the cosponsor of the underlying legislation.
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