Age discrimination in the USA and the UK

Age discrimination in the USA and the UK. 

Discrimination defines the matter of treating one particular group of people less favorably than others because of their race, color, nationality, ethnic, national origins or even age.  Generally speaking Age discrimination is a big issue nowadays. Business field is one of the most recognizable places where Age Discrimination takes place. But how do we deal with it in modern society? Every nation tries to come up with some solutions and illuminate age discrimination. Let’s look at two developed countries the USA and the UK and compare how 2 countries cope with the problem of Age Discrimination on a work place.

To regulate a matter of “Age Discrimination”  both the USA and the UK came up with Acts that provide certain policy about employees of different ages. The USA came up with “The Age Discrimination in Employment Act” (ADEA), while the UK developed “the Equality Act 2010”. Both Acts forbid discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment: hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, etc. I think that the main different between two acts is that ADEA only forbids age discrimination against people who are 40 years old or older, while The Equality Act 2010 covers workers of all ages. I find it very interesting, and maybe even not fair that the USA limited their act to just protecting worker of age 40 and older, because younger employees can be discriminated as well, as they might have not that much of experience as older people do or because of some other reasons . One more interesting thing is that in the Act of UK retirement age and all the aspects about it are strictly outlined, while in the Act of USA they did not provide certain information about retirement age. The Equality Act states: “People can either work whilst drawing their state pension or work and delay claiming their state pension, potentially benefiting from a higher regular payment or a lump sum from their state pension when they do choose to retire (retirement age -65 years old).”

To summarize I have to say that both countries did pretty well on recognizing the problem of Age Discrimination and reacting on it. Though the UK with The Equality Act covered more areas that the USA with ADEA, it is still the not only about special laws that provide rules and regulation but about ethical issues of a person or a nation to either treat people depending on their age or not. I hope that in the nearest future people could take each other for what they are, notwithstanding on nationality, ethnic, national origins or age.