The 2019 Hiscox Ageism in the Workplace Study™, revealed that 21% of U.S. workers age 40 and older have experienced discrimination in the workplace due to their age, and respondents believe they're most likely to experience it at age 51. The study also found that 62% of all workers did not receive any form of age discrimination training in the previous 12 months.

The study, which surveyed 400 full-time U.S. workers age 40 and over, discovered that more than two-thirds (67%) of respondents 65 or younger plan to continue working after they turn 66.

"Age discrimination in the workplace is an increasingly serious issue for businesses and employees as older generations continue to maintain their professional careers longer than their predecessors," said Patrick Mitchell, Management Liability Product Head at Hiscox USA. "Discrimination of any kind brings serious reputational and financial risks to any business and can negatively impact a worker's career trajectory. As such, businesses must take the necessary steps to prevent, detect, and mitigate any instances of age discrimination in the workplace in order to fully protect their organization and employees."

While prior Hiscox data found that women are more likely to experience harassment in the workplace, the 2019 Hiscox Ageism in the Workplace Study™ found that men were more likely to feel that their advancing age adversely impacted their careers. 43% of men felt that their age has been a barrier to finding a new job since turning 40 years old, compared to less than one-third (30%) of women. More than one-third (39%) of men reported that age slowed their career advancement since turning 40, compared to 24% of women.

Although over one in five respondents shared that they faced age discrimination in the workplace themselves, only 40% filed a charge or complaint. Their reasons for staying silent included the fear of a report creating a hostile work environment (54%) and a lack of knowledge on how to initiate a complaint (24%).

Even witness of age discrimination stay quiet. More than half (51%) of workers who witnessed age discrimination against another employee did not report it, and 62% pointed to a fear of retaliation by their employers as the reason for not speaking up.

In addition to ageism impacting employee productivity, organizations face the loss of talent and institutional knowledge when older employees leave a company. In fact, 43% of respondents reported that they had left a company due to experiencing or witnessing age discrimination.

Businesses should take the following steps to prevent, detect, and mitigate age discrimination in the workplace:

• Prevent age discrimination by providing workforce training.

• Detect age discrimination by watching for behaviors that indicate older workers are being harassed, excluded from projects, and underrepresented in new hiring and promotions.

• Mitigate the risks and exposure associated with age discrimination by responding to claims immediately and thoroughly.