How can you prove discrimination based on age?

You can prove discrimination based on age through four essential steps. These include:

• Prove you're a protected age class. You're automatically fall under the "protected age class" if you're 40 and older, meaning that this should be easy to prove. Additionally, this is federal law, meaning that you should be protected in any legal workplace.

• Prove your job was performed properly. If you have younger co-workers or a boss discriminating against you based on your age, it's important that you prove that you perform your job accurately and effectively. In doing so, you'll effectively remove the "he said-she said" aspects of another employee harassing, insulting, or punishing you unjustly for your age.

• Show how adverse action was taken against you. Once you prove that you perform your job properly, you can then present evidence of how you were discriminated against. Common punishments you can bring up are cut hours, time-off request denials, forced overtime, discriminatory comments, and many more.

• Compare with younger employees. The final key to proving age discrimination in the workplace is to present how a boss or co-worker treats younger employees differently, despite the fact that you preform your job just as effectively. Typically, this last step will be the final nail in the coffin for proving your case, and hopefully get you the compensation you deserve.