An Empirical Assessment of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a content analysis of 153 federal court cases in which complainants charged a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The results show that 57 percent of the cases were brought on behalf of white men in professional and managerial occupations; employers won nearly two of every three cases; women were more successful plaintiffs than men; more cases originated in the South than in any other region; and government-initiated cases succeeded more often than those initiated by individual plaintiffs.