Is ageism blocking seniors from the workforce?

A fast-food restaurant chain came under fire in New Zealand recently over a job advertisement that apparently excluded many seniors from applying.

The Auckland Central McDonald’s outlet, which was looking for workers for its overnight shift, used a social-media post to appeal for applicants “any age from 16 to 60”, suggesting an upper limit.

Under New Zealand law it is permissible to set the lower age-limit of 16, but not to set a maximum age. When asked by the media, the chain said the franchisee had used the phrase “16 to 60” to make it “sound catchy”.

However, union representatives and employment specialists told the New Zealand Herald that the advertisement was “bizarre”, “ageist” and a “blatant violation of the Human Rights Act”.

Such an advertisement would also fall foul of the law here in Australia, where it is illegal to discriminate based on age.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), age discrimination is blocking many older people from the workforce.

The 2023 Employing and Retaining Older Workers Survey, conducted by the AHRC and Australian Human Resources Institute, found one in six organisations will not consider hiring people aged 65 and above, while only a quarter are open to hiring those aged 65 and above.

Just over half (56%) of HR professionals say they are open to recruiting people aged 50-64 to “a large extent” while 18% say either that they would be open to recruiting from the same age cohort “to a small extent” or “not at all”.

Australian HR Institute CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett says this is disappointing and organisations are doing themselves a disservice by not considering older workers – particularly at a time when Australia is experiencing historically high levels of job vacancies.

“ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics] data shows there were 439,000 vacancies in February 2023 – which is almost double the vacancies pre-pandemic – while two-thirds of HR professionals we surveyed say they are currently experiencing recruitment difficulties.

“Our results show employment of older workers could help ease these shortages as there are too many workplaces where older workers are not being utilised to their full potential.” 

The report, published in May 2023, also shows:

• The four greatest advantages of hiring older workers are seen to be experience (85%), professional knowledge (71%), age diversity (41%), and reliability (25%).

• The three greatest obstacles HR professionals say they face in recruiting older workers are a lack of applicants (32%), a perception that older workers lack the necessary tech skills (22%), and salary expectations that are too high (20%).