Age, Assumptions and Access at Work

How much do you think age influences your opportunities at work?

A new report, Age, Assumptions and Access at Work, from Diversity Council Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission, highlights the significant role age-based assumptions continue to play in Australian workplaces. Drawing on the experiences of 3,000 workers, the report exposes how your age can shape access to opportunities, inclusion and career development.

Importantly, the report’s findings challenge the perception that age discrimination only affects older workers. Instead, it reveals that people can experience age-related disadvantage at different stages of their working lives, and often in very different ways.

For younger workers, age-related assumptions were linked to higher rates of discrimination and sexual harassment. Nearly four in 10 younger workers reported experiencing discrimination or harassment in the workplace, while younger workers with caring responsibilities experienced particularly high rates of discrimination, compared to those with no caring responsibilities.

In contrast, older workers were generally more likely to feel accepted and able to be themselves at work, however, they were significantly less likely to have access to career development opportunities and mentoring. This is particularly true for older women, who reported some of the lowest rates of access to professional development and mentoring opportunities out of all demographic groups.

These findings highlight an important reality: age discrimination is not just about exclusion from the workplace, but also about the exclusion from opportunities and development within it. Whether it is assumptions that younger workers are not yet ready, or that older workers are out-of-touch and no longer need to develop their careers, age-based stereotypes can influence who is supported, who is listened to, and who is given the opportunity to grow.

In Western Australia, the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) (the Act) makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of their age in a range of areas of public life, including employment. Age discrimination can be direct, where a person is treated less favourably than someone else because they are considered too young or too old. It can also be indirect, where a requirement or rule appears fair but, in practice, unfairly disadvantages people of a particular age.

The Act also protects people from age discrimination throughout the employment cycle, including during recruitment and in relation to employment conditions, access to training and development opportunities, promotion, transfer, dismissal, and other workplace benefits. In practice, this means workplace opportunities should be shaped by a person's skills, experience and potential, not assumptions that someone is "too young" to contribute meaningfully or "too old" to continue learning and developing.

As Australia's workforce becomes increasingly age-diverse, bringing together people with different perspectives, experiences and strengths, the report's findings are particularly timely. While younger workers are more likely to experience exclusion, discrimination and harassment in the workplace, older workers are more likely to encounter barriers to career development and progression. Although these experiences differ, they share a common cause – assumptions about age that can limit opportunity and participation.

Perhaps, then, the more important question is not how old someone is, but whether they have equitable access to opportunity, development and inclusion at work. Age, Assumptions and Access at Work reminds us that building fair and inclusive workplaces is not about focusing on age, it is about ensuring age is not a barrier in the workplace.