A Big Day for Combating Age Discrimination

Yesterday, AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond made AARP's stance on age discrimination known: AARP fully and "vigorously" - according to the New York Times - backs the proposed legislation Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act.
The legislation would overturn a four-month-old Supreme Court ruling that makes it difficult for workers to win age discrimination cases. In the case, Gross v. F.B.L. Financial Services, the court established a different burden of proof for age discrimination than that of discrimination based on race or gender. For age discrimination, the burden of proving that age was the deciding factor in a demotion or layoff now fell upon the employee instead of the employer.
And, with the growing unemployment rate of Americans over 50 that we've discussed, the decision came at the most inopportune time for those seniors trying to find work.
LeaMond said, "Unless Congress passes this bill, too many older workers who have been victims of arbitrary age discrimination will be denied their day in court."
Read AARP's press release on its endorsement of the bill.
Other big news of the day includes discussions of another stimulus (but don't call it a "stimulus"!) - and the unemployment rate is the big issue here too. With unemployment nearing double digits, Roll Call reports that House Democrats are trying to find a balance between a "bailout-weary public" and the "ranks of the jobless." Read more commentary from the Washington Post here.