State Age Protection Laws and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act

This paper exploits an unusual aspect of the policy for enforcement of the federal 1968 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which made filing an age discrimination claim less burdensome in some states than in others. After the enforcement of the federal law, white male workers over age 50 in states where the federal government allowed an easier filing procedure were .2 percentage points less likely to be hired than workers in states without laws. They also worked between .8 and 1.3 fewer weeks per year and were between .5 and .7 percentage points more likely to claim to be retired, between 1.6 and 1.8 percentage points more likely to be not in the labor force, and between 1.6 and 3 percentage points more likely to be not employed. These findings suggest that in an anti-age discrimination environment, firms seek to avoid litigation through means not intended by the legislation - by not employing older workers in the first place