Colorado may end age-discriminating work question

How old are you?

BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN

Asking someone their age is considered impolite. But asking a job candidate? at’s perfectly legal.

A bill at the state legislature would change that, at least in Colorado, and prohibit companies from shing around for an age by asking about high school or college graduation dates. Older job candidates never know if that little number got in the way of a callback so this proposal would eliminate that doubt.

“In order to combat that kind of age discrimination in the hiring process, we mean to eliminate any ageidentifying items in the job application process,” said state Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Democrat from Wheat Ridge who is the prime sponsor of the bill. “ at way, older Coloradans are being judged on their merit equal to their younger counterparts when they’re trying to get a new job.”

Senate Bill 58, also known as the Job Application Fairness Act, is straightforward: remove any part of a job application asking about age. ere are exceptions, including occupations with age limits — commercial pilots, for example, must be under 65, per federal law. e bill joins others introduced in recent years attempting to address workplace equity for Coloradans of all genders, backgrounds and abili-