More than half of their colleagues also didn’t report incidents they observed
More than one in three U.S. employees feel their age has prevented them from getting a job, and one in five say they’ve experienced age discrimination at work, according to a recent survey.
More than a quarter (26 percent) of workers also believe there is some risk they could lose their current job because of their age. Workers feel 51 is the age at which they are most likely to experience discrimination.
The data also indicates a number of occurrences go unreported. Only 40 percent of the survey respondents who experienced discrimination based on age filed a charge or complaint with the relevant government agencies or their employer — potentially due to being afraid of creating a hostile work environment, a lack of knowledge about the filing process or other reasons.
Similarly, more than 50 percent of the employees who witnessed instances of age discrimination at work did not report them.
With the number of workers age 55 and older expected to represent a quarter of the U.S. workforce by 2024, age discrimination could become an even more prevalent issue within organizations — potentially resulting in a number of negative outcomes, ranging from discrimination lawsuits to employee disengagement.
For more about how discrimination based on age could affect the workforce, view this information from Hiscox.