Age and Adverse Employment Decisions
http://www.burgsimpson.com/age.htmlToday, the United States Supreme Court created a new rule of law, making it more difficult for employees to make a claim for age discrimination in employment. In Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., the Supreme Court held that in order to have a viable claim, the employee must show that age is the motivating factor for the adverse employment decision. In other words, "but for" the employee's age, the employer would not have taken the action it did. This is a significant change in the law. Under prior cases, the employee only needed to show that age was one factor contributing to the adverse employment action. The decision was a close one, with 4 of the 9 Justices dissenting.
