Age discrimination is illegal

[Anonymous 1]

Age discrimination is illegal, but hard to prove. But there are things one can do to protect themselves from it. In the case of this FB lady, is she revealing her age in her resume/applications? If so, she needs to stop immediately. They legally can not ask her for her age or her birth date in the application process, but if she is giving it anyway they will use it and they will likely pass her up because they see it as investing time and money in her for her to just retire in a year anyway. Obviously they are going to go with someone younger who has a greater chance of still being there in 5-10 years.

Other general tips for resumes and applications to not give away your age.

- if you have more than 10 years work experience, you can list your college degree but don't list any dates. Dates will set your age right away.

- if you have way more experience than the job is asking for, don't list the full number of years. If it's asking for 5+ years experience only say something in the range of 10 - 15. If it's asking for 2-3 years experience give something in the 5-10 range. You may think "30 years experience" is pretty awesome and shows you know what you are doing, but it really only ages you. Just give a level more than what they are looking for to illustrate that you know what to do.

There could be other things too about the lady's application / resume that are getting it thrown out. There is a lot of competition right now, and having a crappy work history, or having a recent long period of no work, can get you thrown out even before age does. Sometimes people use age as a crutch when really they just have a crappy resume that no employer would want to give the time of day.

If your area has resources to help people with their resumes and job hunting skills and interview skills this lady may want to go check those out.

Birthday is on the application. She looks her age. And full birthday, including year, is required to do a background check. There's no way to hide your age when applying for a job.

[highlandmum]

Do you submit your age when you apply for a job? Reason I ask is it is illegal in Canada to ask for a persons age.

??

Every job application I have ever seen asks for a birthdate. Are you serious, lol.

Not allowed here, as per Human Rights Commission

Do not ask for information related to Code grounds
Section 23(2) of the Code prohibits the use of any application form or written or oral inquiry that directly or indirectly classifies an applicant as being a member of a group that is protected from discrimination. Application forms should not have questions that ask directly or indirectly about race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, S*x, sexual orientation, record of offences, age, marital status, family status or disability.

Only time age is allowed to be ask is if you are required to be over the age of 18 to work in the location (ie: bar, casino). But the question allowed would be - are you over the age of 18?

[PoplarGrove]

Do you submit your age when you apply for a job? Reason I ask is it is illegal in Canada to ask for a persons age.

If you date certain things like when you attended a school or when you received a degree it's often a dead giveaway.

I can usually tell by work history how old a person is when we receive a resume. I don't care but there are lots of clues within some resumes that tell you approximately how old the person is.

[PoplarGrove]

Do you submit your age when you apply for a job? Reason I ask is it is illegal in Canada to ask for a persons age.

??

Every job application I have ever seen asks for a birthdate. Are you serious, lol.

Not allowed here, as per Human Rights Commission

Do not ask for information related to Code grounds
Section 23(2) of the Code prohibits the use of any application form or written or oral inquiry that directly or indirectly classifies an applicant as being a member of a group that is protected from discrimination. Application forms should not have questions that ask directly or indirectly about race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, S*x, sexual orientation, record of offences, age, marital status, family status or disability.

Only time age is allowed to be ask is if you are required to be over the age of 18 to work in the location (ie: bar, casino). But the question allowed would be - are you over the age of 18?

As an aside, I find it funny that employers aren't allowed to ask these questions but when doing bids for municipalities they have the employer fill out a survey to see how diverse the company is. In which they ask about ethnicity, colour, orientation and disability. I had a pretty interesting talk with our municipality about it. How am I supposed to know what percentage of our organization is a member of the LGBTQ+ community? I don't care what's in your pants or who you like to sleep with. Or how many people of indigenous ancestry there are.

[highlandmum]

Do you submit your age when you apply for a job? Reason I ask is it is illegal in Canada to ask for a persons age.

If you date certain things like when you attended a school or when you received a degree it's often a dead giveaway.

I can usually tell by work history how old a person is when we receive a resume. I don't care but there are lots of clues within some resumes that tell you approximately how old the person is.

Exactly - if you have 20 years experience and require a degree. You probably got your degree when you where around 22 years old so add the 20 years experience and you know the person is at least 40 years old. Not hard to figure out but if a potential employer asks about age they are slapped on the hand.

[PoplarGrove]

The reality is a lot of candidates don't make it past the resume submission phase because of race, ethnicity, S*x and age. An employer can ALWAYS find a reason to not interview someone that isn't discriminatory but you know the reason is discrimination. I've watched it with my own eyes.

Another batch don't make it through the interview phase because then they do see your age/S*x/ethnicity. As long as they don't say it's because of something discriminatory they're in the clear.

[Olioxenfree]

Age discrimination is illegal, but hard to prove. But there are things one can do to protect themselves from it. In the case of this FB lady, is she revealing her age in her resume/applications? If so, she needs to stop immediately. They legally can not ask her for her age or her birth date in the application process, but if she is giving it anyway they will use it and they will likely pass her up because they see it as investing time and money in her for her to just retire in a year anyway. Obviously they are going to go with someone younger who has a greater chance of still being there in 5-10 years.

Other general tips for resumes and applications to not give away your age.

- if you have more than 10 years work experience, you can list your college degree but don't list any dates. Dates will set your age right away.

- if you have way more experience than the job is asking for, don't list the full number of years. If it's asking for 5+ years experience only say something in the range of 10 - 15. If it's asking for 2-3 years experience give something in the 5-10 range. You may think "30 years experience" is pretty awesome and shows you know what you are doing, but it really only ages you. Just give a level more than what they are looking for to illustrate that you know what to do.

There could be other things too about the lady's application / resume that are getting it thrown out. There is a lot of competition right now, and having a crappy work history, or having a recent long period of no work, can get you thrown out even before age does. Sometimes people use age as a crutch when really they just have a crappy resume that no employer would want to give the time of day.

If your area has resources to help people with their resumes and job hunting skills and interview skills this lady may want to go check those out.

Birthday is on the application. She looks her age. And full birthday, including year, is required to do a background check. There's no way to hide your age when applying for a job.

Birthday is often on the application to determine identity and eligibility for work, but usually the hiring manager doesn’t see it, it stays under your confidential information with HR. Maybe if it’s a really small independent business where there is no HR, but otherwise that information isn’t usually passed on. Hiring managers can still make rough estimation based on information on the resume like year you graduated college, work history, etc.

[Traci_Momof2]

Age discrimination is illegal, but hard to prove. But there are things one can do to protect themselves from it. In the case of this FB lady, is she revealing her age in her resume/applications? If so, she needs to stop immediately. They legally can not ask her for her age or her birth date in the application process, but if she is giving it anyway they will use it and they will likely pass her up because they see it as investing time and money in her for her to just retire in a year anyway. Obviously they are going to go with someone younger who has a greater chance of still being there in 5-10 years.

Other general tips for resumes and applications to not give away your age.

- if you have more than 10 years work experience, you can list your college degree but don't list any dates. Dates will set your age right away.

- if you have way more experience than the job is asking for, don't list the full number of years. If it's asking for 5+ years experience only say something in the range of 10 - 15. If it's asking for 2-3 years experience give something in the 5-10 range. You may think "30 years experience" is pretty awesome and shows you know what you are doing, but it really only ages you. Just give a level more than what they are looking for to illustrate that you know what to do.

There could be other things too about the lady's application / resume that are getting it thrown out. There is a lot of competition right now, and having a crappy work history, or having a recent long period of no work, can get you thrown out even before age does. Sometimes people use age as a crutch when really they just have a crappy resume that no employer would want to give the time of day.

If your area has resources to help people with their resumes and job hunting skills and interview skills this lady may want to go check those out.

Birthday is on the application. She looks her age. And full birthday, including year, is required to do a background check. There's no way to hide your age when applying for a job.

They really shouldn't be doing background checks until after at least a first interview and ideally not until after they've made a job offer. At that point age doesn't matter anymore. And it's very common to give job offers contingent upon results of the background check and drug test. I would question any employer who's doing background checks first because it's a huge waste of money and resources.