Are any workers TOLD not to hire older people because of medical expenses?

[raccoon]

Has anyone ever been TOLD not to hire people older than 50 because they might have lots of medical bills and run up the employer’s insurance premiums?

Hearsay gladly accepted. PM me if you want to.

I believe it happens (all the time) and want to hear some anecdotal evidence.


Edited to make more sense.

[dmallind]

1. I'm a hiring manager not HR

but not anywhere I have been - and I'm a bit of a peripatetic business type.

Typically HR is a screening function not a final decision maker. I've worked for both big companies - up to the Fortune 50 and small ones - down to <$10MM a year. I've never been asked, told or even hinted at to make any decision on that basis.

It's certainly possible HR has acted as a biased screening function and sent me fewer older candidates, but I haven't noticed that anywhere and in fact my last two hires were both well over 40 and one almost certainly well past 50 (legally I cannot ask, and personally I have no interest in trying so these are based on looks, college dates, experience etc). I can't remember any position where I only got young candidates to interview.

I personally reject more older candidates when I do so for either explicitly or very obviously implicitly making it clear that they had no interest in looking for ways to improve and change the company for the better than I have any health concerns. I should of course make it very clear that this is neither universal among older workers nor limited to them in any way - but it's been among my own biggest reasons for rejection for that demographic.

Funnily enough my presumed 50+ hire has shown himself to be among the most effective change agents in his short tenure, so it works both ways of course.

[alc]

10. I was going to say something very similar.

I agree with all you said (currently in a fortune 50 company). The additional issue is there there is a big cost of hiring and 1-2 years or more is fully up to speed. So I want someone who is likely to be there as long as possible. We're mostly talking about low-level jobs since older people generally get the high level jobs if they come from outside. And I want someone doing the low-level jobs who wants to excel and move up, not someone who wants to last until retirement which does happen with older workers.

[Donnachaidh]

2. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that.

My DH was infinitely qualified for many of the jobs he applied for over the 18 months he was looking for work. We always wondered if there is some way for HR depts. to check into WC claims, or medical history - because he did have a WC claim that went on for months, due to bad medical care. We could not figure out why he was being passed over for jobs he qualified for.

[lunatica]

3. HR doesn't hire anyone. They fill out the hiring paperwork

and keep track of employee's benefits and sometimes do payroll.

[raccoon]

4. You and dmallind are right. I should have phrased it differently. nt

[lunatica]

5. But higher management probably refuse to hire older workers

They can pay younger people half what older workers would get and they can control them more. Keep them from organizing as a union for example.

[dmallind]

8. All false as generalizations

I am higher management, have been in quite a few companies. Never been mentioned. Every place I have gone spends more time training management to avoid illegal discrimination than telling them how to do it.

Outside the few remaining seniority-based payscales the job determines the pay grade, not the age of the incumbent. Higher level jobs often require most experience, but I've never seen one where that would mean the candudates would have to be past 40 or so to qualify even for executive positions. In my department my highest paid (and best) non-supervisory employee is 29. The lowest paid range from 20s to 50s who all get about the same. All of them are paid due to the scale for their job, not their age. Companies spend a lot of effort time and money getting COMPA ratios that depend on company size, industry, location, and job title. Age never enters into it.

Unionization? Never seen anything that relates that to age as far as looking for new representation, but suspect there is little link. Willing to be shown otherwise.

[lunatica]

11. So all those articles and anecdotes are false?

Stories about women not getting equal pay are not an evil myth. And union busting happens. And unless a lot of DUers are liars companies are discriminating against older workers.

I'm glad your company doesn't practice such things. I'm glad to know those kinds of companies are out there. But being laid off because the company decides do outsource in order to save money by exploiting the poor countries doesn't make anyone happy.

[NNN0LHI]

6. My employer liked to hire young people. Right out of high school or sooner

I was still in high school when they hired me. That was in 1973.

With a good union contract I was retired before I was 50.

It didn't have anything to do with medical costs either. Medical costs were cheap back then. They knew the first thing us young workers were going to do was have a bunch of kids to put on the company paid medical insurance.

Don

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. Unemployment rates are lowest for the 55-64 year old and 65+ brackets.

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseea13.txt

In fact, it's a full 3% lower than the 25-34 year old bracket. So, no, I really don't see that systemically happening.

[LaurenG]

9. I love hiring older workers

and really anyone in their 30's and up has stayed in my employ for as long as they wanted. I've been very lucky with hiring good people.