Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-jbjwg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-15T01:08:12.338Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The enduring myth of endemic age discrimination in the Australian labour market

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

Philip Taylor*
Affiliation:
Federation Business School, Federation University Australia, Berwick, Victoria, Australia
Catherine Earl
Affiliation:
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*
*Corresponding author. Email: philip.taylor@federation.edu.au

Abstract

It has often been stated by older people's advocates that discrimination affecting older people is commonplace and ongoing in the Australian labour market. In this article, we contrast such rhetoric with a review of evidence from recent large-scale surveys which demonstrates that low and declining numbers of Australians experience age discrimination, while highlighting the complexity of the phenomenon. We identify the emergence of a fake ‘age’ advocacy that is acting to the detriment of an informed public discourse concerning issues of older workers’ employment. To counter this we propose five underlying principles for advocacy on ageing and work: countering myths concerning the extent and nature of age barriers in the labour market; avoiding and challenging the use of age stereotypes in making the business case for older workers’ employment; recognition that age interacts in complex ways with a range of other factors in determining people's experiences of the labour market; challenging public understanding that is grounded in the notion that generational conflict is inevitable; and discarding traditional notions of the lifecourse in order to overcome disjunctions and contradictions that hamper efforts to encourage and support longer working lives.

Type
Forum Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adair, T, Temple, J, Ortega, L and Williams, R (2013) Age Discrimination in the Labour Market: Experiences and Perceptions of Mature Age Australians. Melbourne: National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre.Google Scholar
Advisory Panel on the Economic Potential of Senior Australians (2011) Realising the Economic Potential of Senior Australians. Turning Grey into Gold. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Australia, July 2014 to June 2015 (Media release: Older workers finding more acceptance). Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020) General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia. Available at https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/general-social-survey-summary-results-australia/2019#data-download.Google Scholar
Australian Government (2014) Age Discrimination Act 2004. Available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00009.Google Scholar
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (2015) National Prevalence Survey of Age Discrimination in the Workplace. Sydney: AHRC.Google Scholar
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (2016) Willing to Work. National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australians and Australians with Disability. Sydney: AHRC.Google Scholar
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (2020) 2019–20 Complaint Statistics. Available at https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-10/AHRC_AR_2019-20_Complaint_Stats_FINAL.pdf.Google Scholar
Australian Law Reform Commission (2013) Access All Ages – Older Workers and Commonwealth Laws. Final Report. Sydney: Australian Law Reform Commission.Google Scholar
Australian Treasury (2020) JobMaker. Creating Jobs and Rebuilding Our Economy. Available at https://budget.gov.au/2020-21/content/jobmaker.htm.Google Scholar
Committee for Economic Development of Australia (2019) We Need to Prepare the Economy for Ageing Population: Federal Treasurer. Available at https://www.ceda.com.au/News-and-analysis/CEDA-Events/We-need-to-prepare-the-economy-for-ageing-population-Federal-Treasurer.Google Scholar
Dawson, E (2019) The economic impacts of ageism. Speech to the COTA Australia National Policy Forum, National Press Club, Canberra, June. Available at http://percapita.org.au/2019/06/17/speech-the-economic-impacts-of-ageism/.Google Scholar
Duncan, C (2003) Assessing anti-ageism routes to older worker re-engagement. Work, Employment and Society 17, 101120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl, C and Taylor, P (2016) Discriminatory practices of older workers in an ageing residential care workforce. International Journal of Work Innovation 1, 391412.Google Scholar
Erhel, C (2007) Life-course policies and the labour market. In Modernising Social Policy for the New Life Course. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, pp. 149172.Google Scholar
Gringart, E, Helmes, E and Speelman, CP (2005) Exploring attitudes toward older workers among Australian employers: an empirical study. Journal of Aging & Social Policy 17, 85103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanlon, MD (1986) Age and commitment to work: a literature review and multivariate analysis. Research on Aging 8, 289316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGann, M, Ong, R, Bowman, D, Duncan, A, Kimberley, H and Biggs, S (2016) Gendered ageism in Australia: changing perceptions of age discrimination among older men and women. Economic Papers 35, 375388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Seniors Australia (2020) Should You Be Able to Access the Pension Early? Available at https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/latest/COVID-19-should-you-be-able-to-access-the-pension-early.Google Scholar
Ng TWH and Feldman DC (2008) The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 93, 392423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Loughlin, K, Kendig, H, Hussain, R and Cannon, L (2017) Age discrimination in the workplace: the more things change… Australasian Journal on Ageing 36, 98101.Google ScholarPubMed
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013) OECD Employment Outlook 2013. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/empl_outlook-2013-en.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C (2019) ‘Fuller’ or ‘extended’ working lives? Critical perspectives on changing transitions from work to retirement. Ageing & Society 39, 629650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reday-Mulvey, G (2005) Working Beyond 60. Key Policies and Practices in Europe. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riach, K (2009) Managing difference: understanding age diversity in practice. Human Resource Management Journal 19, 319335.Google Scholar
Roberts, I (2006) Taking age out of the workplace: putting older workers back in? Work, Employment and Society 20, 6786.Google Scholar
Ryan, S (2016) Why Recruiting Mature Age Workers Makes Good Business Sense. Available at https://blog.jobactive.gov.au/why-recruiting-mature-age-workers-makes-good-business-sense.Google Scholar
SEEK (2019) The Benefit of the Older Worker. Available at https://www.seek.com.au/employer/hiring-advice/benefit-older-worker.Google Scholar
Taylor, P and Earl, C (2016 a) The social construction of retirement and evolving policy discourse of working longer. Journal of Social Policy 45, 251268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P and Earl, C (2016 b) Making the case for older workers. Management Revue 27, 1428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P, Earl, C and McLoughlin, C (2016) Recent public policy and Australian older workers. Australian Journal of Social Issues 51, 229247.Google Scholar
Taylor, P, McLoughlin, C and Earl, C (2018) Everyday discrimination in the Australian workplace: assessing its prevalence and age and gender differences. Australasian Journal on Ageing 37, 245251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, A and Maltby, T (2012) Active ageing: a strategic policy solution to demographic ageing in the European Union. International Journal of Social Welfare 21, S117S130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warr, P (1993) In what circumstances does job performance vary with age? European Work and Organizational Psychologist 3, 237249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, R, Warren, D, Hahn, M and Houng, B (2011) Families, Incomes and Jobs, Vol. 6, A Statistical Report on Waves 1 to 8 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Melbourne: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2021) Global Report on Ageism. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar