2%".7 The ADEA states that it pertains to workers 40 years and up. Do these workers know when or if they are being discriminated against? A worker should be knowledgeable of age discrimination.
Age discrimination is prevalent if you were not hired based on the fact that the employer wanted a younger-looking person to do the job. Discrimination occurs when; "you were passed over for training courses and then got a negative job evaluation because you weren't flexible in taking on new assignments, you got fired or laid off because your boss wanted to keep younger workers who are paid less, you received undeserved negative performance evaluations and then your employer used your record of poor performance to justify a demotion or termination, you got turned down for a promotion to mid-management job which went to someone younger who was hired from the outside because the company says it needs new blood".3 These acts of discrimination are a serious offense and an individual can file a lawsuit against the offending company with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC. The EEOC notifies the company of the discrimination charge, decides whether or not an investigation is needed, both parties are asked to provide facts pertaining to the said discrimination in documented forms, the EEOC will try to reach an agreement with the employer and employee and if one cannot be made they will determine whether or not it is feasible to investigate further. The charges that were filed with the EEOC in 2002 for discrimination based on age were "23.6% of the total amount of discrimination files".6 These files can go all the way to the Supreme Court. One such case was: .
Hazen Paper Co. et. al. v. Biggins.5 This case was about a man, Biggins, who was 62 years old and was fired two weeks short of the years of service he needed for his pension to vest. The Hazen Paper Co. was founded to have committed "inter alia"5 which is a willful violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which in turn granted Biggins with liquidated damages.