Forty one per cent of the respondents also said people doing identical jobs were ‘managed differently’ because of their age, whilst 27 per cent claimed they’d seen people employed because they were of a similar age to their colleagues.

However, despite the widely held view that older people suffer at work because of their ages, the survey revealed that younger workers are being held back for similar reasons, with 31 per cent saying they’d worked in places were older staff were paid more than younger colleagues in identical jobs, and 23 per cent saying they had heard of younger people being overlooked for promotion on the grounds of age.

However, EFA boss Sam Mercer conceded that older staff continued to be discriminated against. "I think some employers have been getting rid of their older employees. It’s a pretty short sighted, stupid thing to do," she said.

The EFA/NOP survey uncovered age-related pre-conceptions for certain jobs. Only 7 per cent of respondents though people over forty were the ideal age to be call centre operatives, just 3 per cent thought aircraft flight attendants should be forty plus, but 58 per cent thought under thirty was an ideal age. Almost 40 per cent believed 41-50 was the best age range for company chief executives, but this fell to 17 per cent for people over fifty.

Written by Martin Gurdon

This article was created: 27 September 2006.
This article was last edited: 6 November 2006.

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