In today's society age is thought of as a persons" intellectual aptitude. If a person is older they are wiser in their age if a person is young they have a lot to learn and are just young punks. A mentality that feeds this stereotype of age can lead to discrimination lawsuits. The discrimination of age in the workplace is taken very seriously. There are ways to know or find out if you are being discriminated against in the workplace. There are many ways to combat ageism. Age discrimination against the youth is not commonly known yet it does exist. The discrimination of age in the workplace seems to be the most commonly known.
People are protected from age discrimination in the workplace by the ADEA, Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, this act states that it "protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age".1 The provisions under the ADEA are applied both to job applicants and employees. These provisions state that it is illegal to fire, hire, promote layoff, compensate, take or give benefits, place job assignments, or give training based on the individuals" age. "The ADEA makes it unlawful to include age preferences, limitations or specifications in job notices or advertisements".1 The only time that there is an allowance of age specification is if it is found to be necessary to the essence of the business, this is called a bona fide occupational qualification or BFOQ. The allowance of benefits to an individual or the lowering of said benefits is protected under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990, OWBPA. This act was amended to the ADEA to "specifically prohibit employers from denying benefits to older employees".1 Older employees make up the great portion of the workforce. In Tulsa County, Oklahoma the population of "persons 65 years old and over, percent, in 2000 is 11.8%, overall in Oklahoma is 13.