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Forty Is the Protected Age: What I Learned About Age Discrimination at Work
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Forty Is the Protected Age: What I Learned About Age Discrimination at Work

A conversation with an employment lawyer produced one line that stopped me cold. Under federal law, the protected age is 40. Not 50, not 55, not somewhere near retirement. Forty. That threshold says something most people miss: age bias doesn't wait for the end of a career. It can land on professionals at exactly the moment they've built the expertise, judgment, and credibility organizations claim to want. Here's how it shows up, what to watch for, and what employers should be doing about it now.

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