Both federal and Colorado age discrimination laws apply to employers with 20 or more employees. The Federal law protect workers and job applicants who are over years old and both laws and prohibit employers from basing employment decisions on those individuals' ages. Employers have every right not to hire, to demote or to fire people who are over 40, so long as those decisions don't violate contracts or other laws and are based on legitimate business or performance reasons rather than age. Current and former employees can claim age discrimination if they were demoted based on age, passed-over in favor of younger employees or paid less than younger workers. Applicants have age claims if job criteria are used improperly to screen out older people or to favor younger applicants.
Records are particularly important in refuting age discrimination claims.
Colorado employers are required to keep personnel records. The state or federal agency to which employees must make their claim before they can sue almost always wants to see the personnel records for the complaining employee and others who are similarly employed, company policies, and documentation about applicants, testing and all employees who have been hired or whose employment has ended within the past few years. Failure to produce the records raises a presumption they would contain information supporting the claim. Neutral policies and personnel records that show unbiased business decisions unrelated to age go a long way to reducing exposure to age claims. Employers can defeat age discrimination claims with proof they acted for legitimate reasons unrelated to age.