Presentation to CIPD East London branch event on age discrimination

1. Extending working lives
and age discrimination
15 January 2015
Mark Beatson
Chief Economist

2. Context: managing an age-diverse workforce
• Population ageing raises
the societal cost of age
discrimination against
older workers but does not
eliminate it.
• Last year we published
research on managing an
age-diverse workforce.
• Based on questions placed
in our regular surveys of
employers (CIPD Labour
Market Outlook 2013/14, n
= 935) and employees
(CIPD Employee Outlook
2013/14, n = 2,691).

3. -677
-94
1,387
770
-305
186
1,235
1,956
15-24 25-49 50-64 65+
Illustrative projections of change in employment by age group from
2012 baseline, thousands
2022 2032
Sources: CIPD calculations based on ONS 2012 Principal population projections and revised mid-year estimates for 2002
and 2007 , employment rates for May-Jul 2002 and 2012 based on the Labour Force Survey and CIPD assumptions for
employment rates for 2017 onwards.
Context: population ageing

4. How employers are responding to population
ageing
13%
15%
6%
15%
31%
6%
14%
Don't know
Don't think we have considered the issue
We are not aware of any challenges which might
emerge
We have considered possible implications but not
found a need to modify the way we do things
We deal with issues as they arise
A business case for a strategy is being developed
We have a strategy agreed at Board level which
informs what we do
Source: CIPD Labour Market Outlook, winter 2013/14.

5. Employer views of benefits and challenges of
working with colleagues of different ages
55%
14%
9% 7% 6% 4% 3% 1% 1%
17%16%16%15%13%11%
5% 3% 2% 1% 1%
CHALLENGES
Source: CIPD Labour Market Outlook, winter 2013/14.
BENEFITS

6. Employee views of benefits and challenges of
working with colleagues of different ages
72%
66%
41%
32%
20%
7% 6%
32% 31% 29% 28%
22%
9% 9% 8%
CHALLENGES
Source: CIPD Employee Outlook, winter 2013/14. Respondents could select more than one benefit/challenge.
BENEFITS

7. Some evidence of negative stereotypes about older
workers’ capabilities
(% of workers agreeing that older workers tend to exhibit these signs more than younger
workers)
21
12
15
50
25
0 20 40 60
Take more time off work
due to illness
Have more accidents at
work
Less productive at work
Less able to adapt to
changes
Suffer more from stress
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Less able to adapt to
changes
Suffer more from stress
All ages 18-34 35-54 55+
Source: Pan-European opinion poll on occupational safety and health 2013, EU-OSHA

8. Employees think age discrimination at work was
increasing during the last decade
(% saying more discrimination than 5 years previously minus % saying less
discrimination, Great Britain, 2009)
-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
All ages
15-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
Discrimination against younger workers
All ages
15-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
Discrimination against older workers
All ages
15-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
Generally more age discrimination
Source: British Social Attitudes Survey, 2009.

9. How widespread is age discrimination?
• Unpublished data from autumn 2013 CIPD Employee
Outlook.
• Employees were asked: Still thinking about your career or
working life as a whole… Have you ever felt that you
have been discriminated against and as a result have not
been able to meet your career expectations?
• Discrimination here therefore:
• Is personally experienced (not observed);
• Could have occurred at any time in the past (not necessarily in
their current job); and
• Had sufficient impact for them not to be able to meet their career
aspirations (although we should bear in mind these might not be
fixed and change during people’s lives).
• Bear in mind also these are perceptions and are both subjective
and may not correspond to illegal discriminatory treatment.
• 26% of employees thought they had been discriminated
against at some point in their working life.
• 6% thought they had been discriminated against on
grounds of age.

10. Impact of perceived age discrimination
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Who suffers from age
discrimination?
All employees All discriminated against
Age discrimination
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Very
satisfied
Satisfied Neither
satisfied
nor
dissatisfied
Dissatisfied Very
dissatisfied
Satisfaction with career
or working life as a
whole
All employees All discriminated against
Age discrimination
Source: CIPD Employee Outlook, autumn 2014.

11. CIPD resources
Factsheets
FAQs

12. Current and planned CIPD activity
• Writing up results of autumn 2013 Employee Outlook
alongside other research.
• Research from International Longevity Centre on
impact of population ageing on future labour supply
and demand.
• Pilots to test adapting Steps Ahead Mentoring
approach used for unemployed young people to the
over 50s.
• Membership of Business Champion for Older
Workers’ Advisory Group.
• Considering research on extending working lives
with an international perspective.