Age discrimination involves treating a person less favorably than others because of their age. In the United States, all states have passed laws that restrict age discrimination, and age discrimination is restricted under federal laws such as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA).
Alcoholic beverages In the United States, the minimum legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages has been 21 years of age since shortly after the passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. The two exceptions are Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands where the age is 18. The legal drinking age varies by state, and many states have no age requirements for supervised drinking with one's parents or legal guardians.
Seventeen states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia have laws against possession of alcohol by minors, but they do not prohibit its consumption by minors.
Fourteen states (Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, and Virginia) specifically permit minors to drink alcohol given to them by their parents or by someone entrusted by their parents.
Many states also permit the drinking of alcohol under the age of 21 for religious or health reasons.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act () was passed by the United States Congress and was later signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984; it punished any state that allowed persons under 21 years to purchase alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by 10 percent. The law was upheld in the Supreme Court case South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987).. The law was later amended, lowering the penalty to 8 percent from fiscal year 2012 and beyond.
United States customs laws stipulate that no person under the age of 21 may bring any type or quantity of alcohol into the country.
Credit transactions The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) is a United States law (codified at et seq.), enacted 28 October 1974, that makes it unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction, based on (among other things) age, provided the applicant has the capacity to contract.
Elected office
Some U.S. political offices have qualifications that discriminate on the basis of age. For example, pursuant to the Constitution of the United States the President of the United States must be at least 35 years old; a United States senator must be at least 30; and a member of the United States House of Representatives must be at least age 25. Most states in the U.S. also have age requirements for the offices of governor, member of a state senate or legislature, or other elected official.
Employment A 2024 study by AARP shows that 64% of workers over the age of 50 have reported experiencing or witnessing age discrimination in the workplace. The numbers are higher among Black (74%), Latino (62%), and Asian American (67%) workers.Age Discrimination Persists Among African American, Hispanic and Asian American Workers 50-Plus Retrieved 1 May 2025
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) ( to ) is a federal law that provides certain employment protections to workers who are over the age of forty, who work for an employer who has twenty or more employees. For protected workers, the ADEA prohibits discrimination at all levels of employment, from recruitment and hiring, through the employment relationship, and through decisions for layoffs or termination of the employment relationship. An age limit may only be legally specified for protected workers in the circumstance where age has been shown to be a "bona fide occupational qualification [BFOQ] reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business" (see ). In practice, BFOQs for age are limited to the obvious (hiring a young actor to play a young character in a movie), when a job is physically demanding (police, firefighters, military service), or when public safety is a concern (for example, in the case of age limits for pilots, truck drivers, and bus drivers).
Some states like New York and New Jersey, including District of Columbia have laws that protect younger workers from reverse age discrimination, a practice not prohibited under the ADEA. In these jurisdictions, employers are legally prohibited from discriminating against workers 18 and older for their age unless a bona fide occupational qualification exists (i.e., employers may require bartenders to be at least 21 to comply with the legal drinking age).
In 1968, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared age restrictions on flight attendants' employment to be illegal sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In July 2024, the state of Colorado passed the "Job Application Fairness Act," which prohibits employers from requesting age-related information, such as date of birth or graduation date, during the early stages of the hiring process. Similar laws also exist in the states of California, Delaware, and Connecticut.Age-proofing your résumé? New law helps job applicants hide their age Retrieved 1 May 2025
In 2025, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed its age requirements, which had required applicants to be at least 21 years old and no older than 37 to 40, depending on the job. It currently requires a minimum age of 18 for applicants.
Mandatory retirement Mandatory retirement due to age is generally unlawful in the United States, except in certain industries and occupations that are regulated by law, and are often part of the government (such as military service and federal police agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation). Minnesota has statutorily established mandatory retirement for all judges at age 70 (more precisely, at the end of the month a judge reaches that age). The Minnesota Legislature has had the constitutional right to set judicial retirement ages since 1956, but did not do so until 1973, setting the age at 70. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a law banning employers from requiring most employees to retire because of age before age 70 and ending mandatory retirement for most federal employees. The Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which became law in 1986, ended mandatory age-related retirement at age 70 for many jobs, not including the Minnesota judiciary; another exception was all postsecondary institutions (colleges, etc.) This exception ended on December 31, 1993.Sanjek, Roger (2009). Gray Panthers. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 185. The Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act (Public Law 110-135) went into effect on December 13, 2007, raising the mandatory retirement age for pilots to 65 from the previous 60.
Air traffic controllers have a mandatory retirement age of 56, with exceptions up to age 61. Most air traffic controllers are hired before the age of 31 (the hiring cutoff age for those with experience is 36). United States Foreign Service employees at the Department of State have a mandatory retirement age of 65 with very narrow exceptions. Federal law enforcement officers, national park rangers and firefighters have a mandatory retirement age of 57, or later if they have had less than 20 years of service.SPECIAL RETIREMENT PROVISIONS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS, FIREFIGHTERS AND AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS , Defense Civilian Personnel Management Service, January 2011 For Florida Supreme Court justices, the Florida Constitution establishes mandatory retirement at age 70. Michigan judges of all levels cannot run for election after passing the age of 70. In the New Hampshire Constitution, Article 78 sets the retirement of all judges and sheriffs at age 70. The New Jersey Supreme Court has established mandatory retirement at age 70. The Maryland Constitution establishes a mandatory retirement age of 70 for Circuit and Appellate Court judges. Oregon has a mandatory judicial retirement age of 75.
Minimum wage In 1986, the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended to allow the United States Secretary of Labor to provide special certificates to allow an employer to pay less than the minimum wage to individuals whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency, or injury."S.2884 — 99th Congress (1985–1986)". United States Congress. October 16, 1986. These employees must still be paid wages that are related to the individual's productivity and commensurate with those paid to similarly located and employed nonhandicapped workers.
Federal minimum wage laws allow for employers to pay lower wages to young workers. Many state and local minimum wage laws mirror such an age-based, tiered minimum wage.Questions and Answers About the Minimum Wage , US Department of Labor
Employment of minors In the United States, a person must generally be at least 14 years old to seek a job, and workers face additional restrictions on their work activities until they reach age 16.Youth & Labor – Age Requirements, US Department of Labor Additional age restrictions for workers vary by state. For example, many states require workers under 18 years of age to have work permits and not fulfill occupations deemed hazardous.
Notable case law EEOC v. Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226 (1983), is a Supreme Court of the United States case about forcible retirement of an employee of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The court held the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any employee or potential employee between the ages of 40 and 70 on the basis of age, except "where age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business. or where the differentiation is based on reasonable factors other than age."
In Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Criswell 472 US 400 (1985), the United States Supreme Court held it was lawful to require airline pilots to retire at 60, because the Federal Aviation Authority forbid using pilots over 60 in aviation. But the Court held that refusing to employ flight engineers over that age was unjustified as there were no such FAA requirements. (Note that The Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act (Public Law 110-135) went into effect on December 13, 2007, raising the mandatory retirement age for pilots to 65 from the previous 60.)
Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20 (1991), is a 1991 case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act requires enforcement of an arbitration clause to compel arbitration of statutory Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 claims.
Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452 (1991) was a U.S. Supreme Court case. It concerned a provision in the Missouri state constitution that required state judges to retire at the age of 70, and the court was asked to consider whether it conflicted with the 1967 federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The provision was upheld, with the case being one of several Supreme Court decisions supporting the principle that "ambiguous language will not be interpreted to intrude on areas of traditional state authority or important state governmental functions".John Fitzgerald Duffy and Michael E. Herz, A Guide to Judicial and Political Review of Federal Agencies (American Bar Association, 2005), p. 74, .