Age discrimination losses increasing in severity: Data Spotlight
Advisen
Age discrimination losses increasing in severity: Data Spotlight
By Rebecca Gainsburg, Advisen
Age discrimination losses have become increasingly more severe. With shifting workforce demographics, these losses may also become more prevalent. Advisen data shows which industries face the greatest frequency and severity of these losses.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) prohibits employment discrimination against anybody older than 40 years old. Under ADEA, employers are not allowed to hire, promote, fire, or determine an employee’s compensation or benefits based on age.
The number of age-related discrimination charges filed by employers over the age of 65 doubled from 1990 to 2017. These losses are expected to become even more prevalent as shifting demographics results in an older workforce, with employees over the age of 55 expected to make up 25% of the workforce by 2024, according to a 2019 Hiscox survey.
Advisen loss data shows these losses are also becoming more severe over time, with the median loss cost rising from $110,000 in 2005 to 2010, to $210,000 in 2010-2015, before reaching a median loss cost of $250,000 in 2015-2020.
This is evident when looking at age discrimination losses in Advisen’s database over $100,000. The regression line (shown in red) represents a trend in the data. In this case, the regression line indicates that loss severity increased about $150,000 from 2010 to 2020.
In the past ten years, age discrimination losses have been most frequent among government entities (shown as Public Administration). Manufacturing and Healthcare also had high incidences of these losses. Age discrimination losses were most severe in Manufacturing – nearly triple the severity of any other industry. Healthcare, Retail Trade, and Public Administration also had high severity losses, according to Advisen data.
*Advisen’s loss data is curated from a wide variety of public sources. Our collection efforts focus on larger and more significant cases. For this reason, the figures in this article may not be fully representative of all cases of this type.
