Ageism and Gender: Economic Exclusion?
By Laila Ali Haid
The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to banish ageism from all workplaces — yet our shores continue to harbour this prejudice.
Ageism — despite being totally illegal along with racism, sexism and ableism — still manages to hamper opportunities for older people.
Particularly, this discrimination persists in the workplace, due to changing economic and job market demands.
Another problem is that retaining older staff is perceived as unfeasible. Businesses prioritise graduate schemes and hiring younger people, over the experiences and knowledge of older workers.
Ageism: the legal and policy perspective
Despite being unlawful, age discrimination continues to be used by bosses in the recruitment process.
This unfair practice between job candidates was highlighted by one parliamentary diversity committee.
In July 2018, the women and equalities committee discussed the challenge of forwarding a skilled and experienced workforce in the UK.
According to their chair Maria Miller MP, older people are viable to solve our weakened labour pool, but face career limitations from being characterized as “too old”.
However, to me, Miller’s argument implies that the lack of an experienced workforce in the UK shows an overarching devaluing of older workers.
Ageism: a detriment to the economy
On the other hand, ageism also causes economic loss for the UK.
The Centre for Ageing Better charity has evidenced the fiscal benefits for supporting older people in work and with career advancement schemes.
In this way, the Centre clarifies that ageism is an unfounded prejudice.
Currently, UK governments have pursued policies that generate courses and training programs for young people who are NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
This shows a disconnect to the situation of a ¼ of old workers, who are unemployed.
The point here is that out-of-work older people remain in these conditions for much longer — without alternative provisions from the government or employers.
However, the Centre references official figures proving that by governments and companies improving employment rates from the ages of 40 or 50 to the pension age, there could be a steady increase in tax and NI contributions by a £1bn and GDP by £18bn.
Ageism creates financial loss and makes little sense from a policy standpoint given the pressure on state expenditure by unemployment in older people.
Wider causes:
This includes the 2008 recession. Economic stagnation and downturn meant that older people have since faced a limited yet highly competitive job market.
Gendered ageism in work:
There is a nuance to age prejudice that should be covered in this article: gender. Indeed, there are sexist dimensions which factor unemployment rates in older workers.
Firstly, in the UK, women face a 50:50 chance of becoming carers by 59 years old. The divisions of household chores and caring at home limit the career progression for women 50 and over.
This directly impacts their employment — with women in their 40s-60s being twice as likely to give up all work or take reduced hours for caring.
With the uneven ratios of women out of work owing to familial responsibilities, it is important that policy-makers and researchers consider how to remedy inequality within ageism.
Finally, ageism is according to one think-thank director an institutional problem.
However, it is disappointing that the very institutions that are expected to deal with this prejudice, perpetuate it.
