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Comment by liquidcool | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely not. I hire engineers, for myself and others, and the last thing I want to know is how old you are. Are they insane? I can't think of an easier way to set yourself up for an age discrimination lawsuit.

Also, for third party recruiting, I've never asked for anything related to an SSN. The hiring company may ask for that for a background check, if it is contingent on an offer, but not from me.

I'm wondering if this another situation where the recruiter is not in the country the job is in, because someone wanted to pay pennies on the dollar.

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One fucked up thing about my home country Sweden is that it's totally legal with age discrimination and even the state is doing it all the time.

For example, at specific jobs in the government you get extra holidays if you're above a certain age. Why they think older people deserve more holiday is beyond me. It has nothing to do with how long you've worked there since a 29 year old that has worked there in 10 years wouldn't get as much vacation as a 40-year old that recently was hired. It has nothing to do with experience. Just age.

I can say as a young developer, I have felt this age thing several times at companies. They just don't give you the same salary or take you as serious because of the age. It doesn't matter how skilled you are or how much value you provide to the company.

That's kind of interesting, sort of reverse age discrimination. Although, does that mean they tend to prefer younger hires since they will take less time off work?

does that mean they tend to prefer younger hires since they will take less time off work?

Yes, that's usually how that works. Note also the salary aspect the OP already pointed out: they can get away with paying a younger person less, because this discrimination is industry wide and extremely entrenched.

Salary discrimination looks like a different issue. But again, you should worry more if it was reversed as you can see that your life experience is valued and not regarded as wasted. But I do not consider this healthy for the society if the disparity is too big.

It is hard for me to say if this is justified. Perhaps you could talk with more people about this (in neutral manner) and see why is it actually like this?

Wait 11 years and you will get the same amount of holidays as today 40 year old. Complain too much an you will get the same amount as today. I would say that this is nice to receive more rest when you get older as you probably are going to need some more.

How can you possibly know that? There are many 40-year olds that are perfectly healthy and have no children and so on.

Just like there are many 20-something that have children and a full schedule and maybe even health issues.

How many more days we are talking about?

But I really think that it is a good thing that it is not dependent on working within a single company as I have feeling that different kind of loyalty programs are approaching the serfdom in the longer run, as people are afraid to leave as they would not receive the level of compensation from somewhere else.

PS. I do not think that it is fair that some childless 40-year old are free riding on top of the society.

I think it is 5 days but I am not really sure.

You don't hit 40 and then stay 40 forever.

They stopped doing the age related holiday amount thing at German universities about 4-5 years ago (I'm not sure if everywhere but at least where I'm at). Their argument for stopping was, as you said, that it discriminates by age, which they deemed unacceptable.

Now, everyone gets the same amount of holidays, i.e. younger employees get as much as the older ones, not the other way around.

Its not them who deemed it unacceptable. Its simply illegal.

Of course, you're right.

> It doesn't matter how skilled you are or how much value you provide to the company.

Always be cautious when people are talking about how much value they themselves provide to the company. It's rarely in line with what the employers see. I've worked with a number of developers who've only a few years experience and think they're hot shots, but they leave such a mess behind them that others have to clean up.

Another thing is that older employees tend to be more reliable, and experience also counts. Yes, we all know the superstar workaholic at 25 and the no-hoper 50-year-old, but I'm talking general demographics. The older a person, the less likely they are to job-hop as well.

I mean seriously, how many 29-year-old developers are there in 2016 that have worked in the same place for 10 years?

FYI, it's legal to ask for age in Europe. And in any case, if you give your bachelor's completion date, they can do the math to approximate for most people.

I don't think it is legal in the UK. I mean it might not be illegal as such, but it would make the employer a sitting duck in an age discrimination lawsuit.

In the UK, it is "against the law" (from the "Overview" page) to discriminate by asking for a DOB: https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recrui...

That page says discrimination during recruiting "may" be illegal, and that you "shouldn't" discriminate on age. It should say "is" and "mustn't" if it's certainly against the law.

My main problem with gov.uk is this fault to make clear the position of its advice in respect of the law, IMO it should link the appropriate legislation/caselaw as citations to prove the position it contends.

It is okay to discriminate for some jobs if the position requires it e.g. you can't be a bar tender if you're < 18.

You can't work full-time under 16yo, so all jobs require age verification??

In The Netherlands it is extremely common for applicants to put a picture of themselves on their resume... I find this pretty messed up.

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