What is age harassment?
Age, like other protected class for workers, also can be the basis of a harassment claim. Although the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled yet whether an employee can sue for age harassment under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, federal appellate and trial courts have found that a claim for age harassment does exist. What that means for employers is that regardless of what state they do business in, they should act as though age harassment is a protected class and admonish their employees not to engage in such behavior. Age harassment claims tend to arise because of an employer’s age-biased comments – or tolerance for coworker comments. The employee then points to the the comments as proof that her age was the motivation for an adverse job action. Even if the employee doesn’t allege age harassment, she can use that evidence to strengthen her case that the company was biased on the basis of age. There are some explicit defenses and exceptions in the ADEA defining when an employer m
