Age and Inequality in Workplaces

• Published in: The Gerontologist 2012, Vol.52 (S1), p.566
• Main Author: Krekula, Clary
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Sociologi; Sociology
• ISSN: 0016-9013; 1758-5341

The demographic transition entails a greater need for more workers working longer. Therefore there is a need for knowledge on the mechanisms of exclusion that affect older workers in the workplace. Research has revealed that older workers are discriminated against in recruitment and downsizing processes, among other areas, and that older workers manipulate signs of being of a high age to reduce their vulnerability to ageism. Revealing this age based inequality in the workplace is important, but to achieve equal age relations knowledge of the processes that create age based inequality and exclusion of the elderly is also necessary. This paper takes its part of departure in theoretical claims that argue that inequality is created in everyday practices for interacting and is expressed through categories and the notion that people are different due, for example, to age. Through analyzing focus group interviews and through observations of individuals’ interactions and how workplaces are organized, I illustrate how age categories are translated into organizing principles in workplaces. The results reveal how age codings, i.e. practices of distinction that are based on and maintain notions of a phenomenon as appropriate for demarcated ages, are institutionalized and the consequences this has for different age groups. The results also illustrate how age hierarchies vary with context and in line with how responsibilities in the workplace are coded.