Passage 1

Recently,Congressional Democrats introduced legislation to make it easier for older workers to win age?discrimination lawsuits.Age discrimination remains a significant workplace issue.

In recent ten years,15.79 percent of cases brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,were described as successful claims.While this number is small given the number of workers covered by the?Age Discrimination in Employment Act,many,if not most,instances of age discrimination are never sued,and?cases hiring discrimination often go undetected.

Most of those who do sue are white,male middle-managers who are likely to have lost a sizeable salary?and pension.For the most part,other groups do not sue because the costs of a lawsuit outweigh the potential?benefits.Age discrimination remains a significant workplace issue.

There is strong experimental evidence for age discrimination in hiring,at least for entry-level jobs.Recently,I performed a labor market experiment in Boston in which I sent out thousands of resumes for fictitious?entry-level female candidates and measured response rate based on date of high school graduation.Among?this group,younger applicants,whose date of high school graduation indicated that they were less than 50?years old,were 40 percent more likely to be called back for an interview than were older applicants.

It is difficult to tell whether employment problems are worse for older workers than for other workers?when times are bad.The number of discrimination lawsuits increases during times of high unemployment,but?this finding by itself does not indicate an increased level of age discrimination.In times of higher unemployment,the opportunity cost to a lawsuit is lower than it is when times are good.

From the employer′s perspective,mass layoffs may seem like a good chance to remove a higher proportion of generally more expensive older workers without the worry of being sued.On the other hand,employers?may be

• A.younger male applicants are more likely to be hired than their female counterparts
• B.age discrimination is quite common in hiring process
• C.the author collected information by interviewing female applicants
• D.female applicants who are 50 years old will never have a chance to get a job