ADEA Exemptions

In 1967 Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. While the Act contains an assortment of statutory guidelines and prohibitions, the primary goal was to prohibit hiring and employment discrimination against individuals over the age of 40, solely because of the individual's age.

Interacting on a primary level with the provisions of the Act is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal body created to oversee all federal fair employment laws. The Act specifically provides for the right of the EEOC to establish exemptions by regulation when required by "the public interest." The Commission issues general exemptions after a public notice and hearing process.

Accordingly, relief from some of the Act's provisions provided in the form of exemptions has been made available to certain classes of individuals and organizations. Exemptions are available to:

• Employers with fewer than 20 workers;

• Unions without a hiring hall and fewer than 25 members;

• The United Nations, as an employer;

• Elected public officials at the state, regional or local level, who are classified as "employees" for purposes of the Act; persons chosen as personal staff and immediate advisors and appointees of the elected official who serve in policy making roles.

This last exemption does not apply to individuals or positions subject to civil service laws of the state, its agencies, and any regional or local political subdivision. The courts have spoken in a number of instances on this issue.

The Eleventh Circuit held that an assistant state's attorney general qualifies as "personal staff" of the elected attorney general. The Ninth Circuit found for the same exemption in the case of a deputy city attorney, as the city attorney was an elected position. The Sixth Circuit found that the president of a community college was exempt because he was an appointee at the policy making level.

The Courts

Countermanding the Act on the exemption for elected officials, The EEOC has said that state and local judges do not qualify for exemption from the Act. However the Second Circuit ruled that a state judge was excluded from protection under the ADEA as an elected public official. The circumstances were that when the judge reached the age of 70, his tenure was subject to a reappointment panel and not the voters. However since he would not have been eligible for consideration by the panel had he not been elected in the first place, he was ineligible for ADEA coverage due to his "elected official" status.

Other EEOC Exemptions

The Commission has issued a blanket exemption for all programs designed to encourage employment of people with special employment problems if carried out under federal contracts or grants or by similar state run public employment services.

The programs that this exemption initially focused on were principally the large federal grant and service programs instituted in the sixties to serve the long-term unemployed, the handicapped, minorities, older workers and youths. Most of these programs exist in some form today, often now run by the state or local entities and funded by federal block grant programs.