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July 5, 1999

The Age Factor

Anecdotal evidence of age discrimination in IT is growing, but what are the real reasons?

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re some IT professionals discriminated against because of their age? Despite the serious shortage of qualified IT staffers, many candidates--particularly engineers and computer programmers--insist they can't get jobs in the field because of bias against older workers.

"For legal reasons, you're never going to hear anyone say, `Sorry, you're too old,'" says Charles Durrett, a 52-year-old network analyst at a consulting firm in Nashville, Tenn. "But they will say things like, `You're overqualified.'" Durrett says he left his job at a medical center in Nashville after 13 years when he wasn't advancing in his career. "I was dead-ended, and age was part of it."

While it's difficult to prove widespread or systemic age discrimination in the IT industry, the anecdotal evidence is growing. But the real reasons aren't always clear. Is it strictly an aversion to age, or is it an attempt by companies to keep IT salary costs down and skill sets current?

pie chart Even interested parties aren't sure. "There's a prevailing belief that anyone over 35 is over the hill," says Bill Payson, president of Senior Staff Inc., a job-placement company that specializes in older IT workers. Still, Payson admits that in many cases older workers don't get offers because they have out-of-date skills. But sometimes even people with appropriate skills are turned away, he says. "I get calls all the time from people who say they looked like a perfect match for a job, then went in for an interview and when the interviewer saw gray hair, her jaw dropped," Payson says.

It's tough to find supporting statistics either way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helps employees deal with discrimination issues, doesn't track specific complaints by job category, according to a spokesman. However, there were about 90,000 age-discrimination complaints filed last year, the EEOC says.

The Department of Commerce, in its report on IT labor released last week, cites "numerous anecdotes of middle-age technical workers having difficulty finding IT jobs." It offers a variety of reasons, including the fact that many employers assume mid-career workers are unwilling to work long hours, a perception that these workers expect higher pay for the same work done by younger workers, and the feeling that older workers may not be current with the latest skills.

It seems safe to say that experience may not be the most valued commodity, according to a survey of 200 IT managers nationwide conducted by InformationWeek Research in May. Though age wasn't specified in the question, only 2% of the managers said they would most likely hire a worker with 10 or more years' experience. Almost half--46%--preferred to hire a worker with four to 10 years' experience, while 26% said they would hire a worker with less than three years' experience, and another 26% wanted an entry-level worker or recent college graduate.

John Granger, VP of MIS at Furr's Supermarkets Inc. in Albuquerque, N.M., says he's shocked at the survey results. "We're more likely to go the other way--to look for people who've been around for a while," he says. The younger workers he hires tend to be from inside the company. "Often, the stakes are too high to just have an unknown walk in off the street," he says.

Others aren't as surprised. Karen Engstrom, manager of systems development at Host Marriott Corp., a $1.4 billion concessionaire at airports and toll stations, is moving from strict application development toward more systems-integration work. While programming experience is helpful, she finds that people with years of programming experience don't want to do integration work. "So we have to find more junior people," Engstrom says. Also, there's an assumption that people with 10-plus years of experience are more likely to be skilled in languages that are no longer in use. Higher salaries may also play a role, Engstrom says.

Some industry groups view the age factor with alarm. Officials of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA say members regularly report age discrimination. "I'm surprised at the numbers of people we've heard from," says Paul Kostek, president of IEEE-USA.

The 1998 American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act, which increased the number of skilled nonimmigrant foreign workers allowed to work in the United States, requires the National Science Foundation to contract with the National Academy of Science on a study to assess the status of older workers in the IT field. The study will determine "the existence and extent of age discrimination in the IT workplace," according to the Commerce Department report. It's due in the House and Senate Judiciary committees by Oct. 1, 2000.

Alleged discrimination has already resulted in at least one lawsuit. A group of 11 computer programmers filed a class-action age-discrimination suit last December against Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. in Minneapolis, a power transmission and distribution subsidiary of Siemens Corp., claiming they were fired in 1997 and replaced by mostly younger programmers.

"Some reapplied for similar positions after being laid off, but didn't even get interviews," says Stephen Snyder, a partner at Winthrop & Weinstine, a law firm representing the programmers, who range in age from the mid-40s to 60. A spokesman for Siemens Corp. declined to comment on the casebecause it's in litigation.

More To Come
More IT-related age-discrimination suits will soon follow, predicts Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis. Matloff, who has testified in front of Congress on the subject, says age discrimination is rampant in the IT industry and calls the shortage of software engineers and programmers "a myth." Matloff says there's an "extensive public-relations campaign" by IT companies--vendors in particular--in part to help generate support for an increase in the yearly quota of H-1B foreign work visas and what he calls "cheap labor."

Others in the industry argue just as vehemently that recruiting knows no age barriers. "We keep getting reports from the same people saying they can't find jobs, but no one has come up with data proving there's discrimination," says Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America. "It's just anecdotal."

The great demand for some IT skills has raised the expectations of job candidates, and this may contribute to the fact that some aren't getting hired, says Andrea Wooten, president and CEO of Green Thumb Inc. in Arlington, Va. Green Thumb provides IT training to older workers who haven't previously worked in IT.

"With all the talk about the shortage, I think expectations have gotten out of line," says Wooten, who hasn't seen "blatant discrimination" against Green Thumb graduates but who says some age bias occurs. "People read articles saying they can get a $60,000 job after taking an eight-week class. They're shooting for these higher-paying jobs, so they hold out. We encourage them to take jobs at the entry level."

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