Attempting To Appeal To Young Consumers Is No Excuse For Age Discrimination

Marketing products to young consumers is a tried-and-true strategy for businesses.  You can get a lifetime of brand loyalty, but more importantly, consumers in their 20s tend to spend enthusiastically on dining, entertainment, and status symbol consumer goods.  They are much more lucrative marks than middle-aged consumers who have no leisure time and are only worried about their bills and their parenting duties, or retirees who have a fixed income and the wisdom not to care about impressing other people.  Conventional wisdom says that young consumers respond favorably to young employees.  While employers should not discriminate against employees based on their age, the law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on the fact that an employee is in his or her 40s or older.  If your employer fired you because you had been on the Earth long enough that you could no longer contribute to your company’s youthful image, contact a Los Angeles age discrimination lawyer.

Experienced Employees Allege That Company Fired Them to Make Room for “Young, Fresh Faces”

73 employees of a company that operates bowling alleys in California and other states have alleged that they were targets of discrimination due to the company’s policy to cultivate a new, hipster-friendly image.  If you went to a bowling alley, you would find it full of retirees, with perhaps a few lanes reserved for children’s birthday parties or youth bowling leagues populated by kids whose mothers lacked the financial resources and the image-conscious ambitions to be soccer moms.  The company very successfully reinvented the image of the bowling alley, turning it into a semblance of Dave and Busters with ten pins, a place where cool young singles could eat, drink, and flirt in style.

Of course, this meant that uncool employees had to go.  Some of the plaintiffs allege that they were fired on flimsy pretenses to make room for younger employees.  The employees also told the EEOC that employees’ attractive looks played a major role in hiring decisions.  Even young women were not always safe from the company’s attempt to cultivate a trendy image.  Moms are not cool; they are fixtures of the last generation’s bowling alleys.  Several women who complained to the EEOC about this employer claimed that they were fired because they were pregnant, and others said that they avoided disclosing their marital status, because they thought that they would not be hired if the employer knew that they were married and therefore had a greater chance of becoming pregnant than unmarried women of similar age.

Age, pregnancy, and marital status are protected characteristics under federal and state employment laws.  If an employer mistreated you because of these protected characteristics, or other protected characteristics such as race, disability, or sexual orientation, you should discuss your case with an employment discrimination lawyer.

Speak With a Los Angeles Age Discrimination Lawyer

A Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyer can help you if your employer discriminated against you and other employees above the age of 40.  Contact Litigation, P.C. in Los Angeles, California to discuss your situation or call (424)284-2401.

Source:

cnbc.com/2023/05/11/bowlero-bowl-faces-dozens-of-eeoc-discrimination-claims.html