Democratic Women’s Caucus Applauds House Passage of Protect Older Job Applicants Act

November 4, 2021
Press Release
CONTACT: Michelle Moreno-Silva
 
Washington, D.C. – Today, Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Co-Chairs Congresswomen Jackie Speier (CA-14), Lois Frankel (FL-21), and Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), and Vice Chairs Congresswomen Veronica Escobar (TX-16) and Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) issued the following statement on the House passage of H.R. 3992, the Protect Older Job Applicants (POJA) Act, which was introduced by DWC Vice Chair Garcia.
 
“Women are the heart of our families and the backbone of our country and economy, yet they are disproportionately affected by age discrimination when looking for a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2024, there will be twice as many women in the workforce over the age of 55 as those ages 16-24, so we don’t have a minute to waste in addressing this injustice,” said the Members. “Women not only face bias in hiring based on gender but age as well, with women of color and Latinas suffering the most. This blatant discrimination must stop. We applaud our House colleagues for helping pass the Protect Older Job Applicants Act to ensure that all job applicants are treated equally and are not discriminated against based on age, and we urge our colleagues in the Senate to quickly take up this critically-needed legislation.”
 
POJA will codify and clarify protections for older job applicants in the current Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). While many employers and legal scholars have interpreted the ADEA as applying to job applicants and employees, two federal circuit court decisions over the last five years (Villareal v. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and Kleber v. CareFusion Corp.) ruled that some provisions of the ADEA’s federal anti-age discrimination protections only applied to current employees, not job applicants. However, these court decisions are strict and narrow interpretations of the ADEA, which seek to deprive applicants and workers the protections they rightfully deserve. Additionally, these narrow interpretations contradict the intentions of the ADEA’s creators. Congresswoman Garcia’s POJA Act seeks to rectify these misguided decisions to specifically include job applicants as protected under the ADEA.
 
H.R. 3992 passed the House of Representatives on November 4, 2021, by a vote of 224 - 200.
 
###