State lawmaker looks to address age bias in job hiring with "Job Application Fairness Act"
This year, the number of Coloradans at the age of 60 and over is expected to surpass those the age 18 and under, according to the state demographer's office.
Colorado has the second fastest aging population in the country and many of them say they can't find a job because of bias against older workers.
A bill introduced at the state capitol is aimed at helping them.
Right now, an employer can't ask a job applicant their age but they can ask questions such as "what year they graduated high school or college?"
A survey by AARP found more than 40% of job applicants in the last couple of years have been asked age-related questions and nearly 40% of managers surveyed admit to age bias in hiring.
"I admit it we have these biases about older workers, you're not going to be tech-savvy, you're not going to want to learn new things, you're going to want a higher salary," said Lisa Jensen, program manager of career services at Workforce Boulder County.
She not only sees age bias on the job, but she also experienced it herself.
When she lost her job in 2020, she thought she'd have no problem finding a new one. After all, she had decades of experience, including managing a program that helped others get jobs, "I applied for over 70 jobs and had, I don't know, between 5 and 7 interviews."
After 14 months of searching with no luck, she attended a resume-building class at Workforce Boulder County.
"It totally changed my thought about how to create my resume and submit it," she said.
Her original resume was five pages long and listed all her experience, but all employers saw was her age.
"We want to do away with that barrier and allow them the same footing as every other worker where they're judged on their merit," said state senator Jessie Danielson.
She's a sponsor of a bill that bars employers from asking any age-related questions, including the year of graduation.
"What we're doing is taking a concrete step forward that's proven effective in eliminating that kind-of discrimination on the front end of the application process so that an older worker has much better chance of getting a job," she said.
Danielson says the bill also helps younger job seekers.
"Younger people face the same kind of bias when they try to get jobs. People who are in their childbearing years where prospective employers might pass them over because they think, well she may need to leave because she's going to start a family," she said.
Jensen created a new resume that didn't give away her age and got more than a foot in the door.
"The next three jobs I applied for I got interview invitations and one of them I got hired," she said.
She now helps others avoid her pitfalls, encouraging older job seekers to list only 10-15 years of experience. She says Danielson's bill, called the "Job Application Fairness Act," helps remove another big obstacle for them.
"That doesn't mean that the bias has gone away. It just means it is giving them a chance to show themselves to that employer," she said.
AARP says 80% of older workers have experienced some form of age discrimination. It says women of color are most impacted.
There are more than 1.3 million Coloradans age 60 and older as the population is expected to double over the next decade.
