WPP chief executive Mark Read has said sorry after he was accused of ageism for saying that the average age of staff is under 30 and "they don't hark back to the 1980s, luckily".

Read made his unscripted comment at the end of the company's 90-minute Q2 investor presentation last week and Campaign reported what he said in an introduction to our own interview with him.

He may have felt he was merely stating the facts. WPP is roughly in line with the IPA Census, which showed 44.8% of staff at UK agencies were aged 30 or under last year, down from 45.6% in 2018, and 6.3% were aged over 50, up from 6.2% a year earlier.

"I was wrong to use age to try to make a point," he said. "People over 40 can do great digital marketing just as people under 30 can make great TV ads.

Ironically, Read himself is 53. When he first joined WPP in 1989 it was a different world. The 35-year old company itself is under assault by a wide range of other communication companies including digital-only agencies, consulting companies, data companies and much more.

We've said it once and we'll say it again: Ageism is as corrosive and counterproductive as all other "isms". When an entire industry discards people because of their age, they shoot themselves in the foot as surely as when they discard people because of gender or race.

Staring at a deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight, finds a new UCL-led study, the first of its kind in humans.

Scientists believe the discovery, published in the Journals of Gerontology, could signal the dawn of new affordable home-based eye therapies, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision.

In the UK there are currently around 12 million people aged over 65: in 50 years this will increase to around 20 million and all will have some degree of visual decline because of retinal aging.

Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) said: "As you age your visual system declines significantly, particularly once over 40.

Read more by following this link

Ageism is as corrosive as sexism, racial bias, religious bias and every other bias. It is just harder to prove so we need to fight harder to eradicate it. If you want to download a PDF of the article, click this link. If you have a story --positive or negative-- share it at info@yourgreymatters.org

I can't remember who was the New York mayor who said "fix the windows" as a solution to the endemic problem of vandalism on the subway cars. But, if you are exposed to this kind of cliche BS, respond. Don't let it just fester. Seek Matthew out in LinkedIn and let him know that it is not OK to insult an entire generation in such a mindless, stupid way.

Yes, she's 50 and she's amazing. But... one is not enough and she can't be the ONLY standard we use to measure women over 50... or people over 50 in general. We need everyone to recognize that our contributions at 50+ include our expertise, willingness to work hard and, yes, experience.

We salute JLO... but let's make everyone aware: Ageism is as corrosive as any other bias. However, its much more invisible. Let's fight it.

Should you feel old at 48?

In Ian Sohn's words "But 48 in advertising makes me a dinosaur" and some interesting data:

• 62% of advertising workers are under 45
  
• The median age is 40.2 and has remained so during almost a decade
  
• In the UK people over 50 represent just 6% of the ad industry work-force
  

His four points:

1. Shift how I talk about innovation -- stop fetishizing innovation
   
2. Stop conflating creativity with youth
   
3. Recognize the value of older consumers
   
4. Celebrate my age
   

To read a PDF of the article, click the illustration

Age discrimination is as illegal and corrosive as all other discriminations. A person doesn't have to justify their age pretty much the way we don't have to justify our gender, religion, sexual orientation or skin color. All mindless discrimination is bad. Age happens to be illegal too. Fight back, make your voice heard!

In their latest article in Business Monday, the Miami Herald and McClatchy editorial boards totally forgot that age discrimination is both illegal and immoral. With phrases like:

• These diehards have varying motivations for extending their careers.
• They may feel they still have much to offer.
• You may also need to work with senior-level people to alter their positions

Columnist James Cassel in a "Special to the Miami Herald" basically brushes aside any idea that older workers actually contribute to creating and maintaining value for the companies they work for.

Not once did the Miami Herald or McClatchy mention that older workers might want to remain because they are physically and psychologically active, engaged, creating value.

Along the way, they seem to have forgotten that most of their audience is NOT the younger workers they so idolize, but the older ones that they want to push out.

I urge you to write both, to the Miami Herald and to McClatchy to voice your disagreement with their position that older workers are just obstacles.

Read the article here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/article239596508.html

But I've had people tell me in a meeting that "OMG, that was before I was born" or seriously doubting my understanding and expertise in digital media because I'm 65.

If the same test were given on age discrimination... how would you rate?

To read the full article from the NYT, click below:

Normally, we would link directly to the article, but the WSJ has a very inconsistent paywall. In spite of the WSJ making this important article open to the public, and just in case it again decides to close the paywall, we are bringing it to you as a PDF.

What will you be doing when you're 70?

For most people, the answer probably isn't fighting fires. But for 71-year-old John Foster, retirement was just the start of a brave new venture. John Foster and a team of volunteers from the Woodgate Rural Fire Brigade are battling a bushfire in Queensland. Foster and the rest of his six-member team from Woodgate Rural Fire Brigade are battling a fierce bushfire in Australia — and they're all over the age of 70.

"Some call us Dad's Army. We don't mind," Foster said in a Facebook post Thursday. "Let's say we are all between 70 and 74. We do this because we believe, I guess, in supporting the community," Foster told CNN on Friday.

Real heroes. Age is just a number.

In 1960, those older than 65 made up just 4.9% of the global population, but by 2050, they’ll account for a staggering 17%.

According to a recent study by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2026, more than one in 10 workers will be older than 75, double the rate in 1996. Roughly 3 in 10 workers will be between 65 and 74

Studies show that the majority of elderly people have faced age discrimination, either on the job or in job applications. A 2018 report by AARP, a US-based not-for-profit for retirees, found that 61% of the older workers it surveyed had seen or experienced age discrimination.

In 2016, Nicole Maestas, an expert in healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, conducted a major research with colleagues from the RAND Corporation

It’s tempting to attribute economic and productivity slow-downs to the fact that older people are past their best, but “it doesn’t necessarily follow that older workers are less productive than younger workers”, says Maestas. In fact, she thinks the reasons underlying this trend are the opposite of what the stereotypes would suggest; the problem might not be that baby boomer workers are older and therefore less competent now, but that the ones who are leaving the workforce are still impressively productive.

And, contrary to popular belief, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that older workers are inherently less productive. One 2018 study didn’t find any significant links between the overall performance of private sector organizations in the UK and the proportion of older workers that they employed.

Maestas suggests some alternative explanations:

• The first is that, as skilled older workers leave the economy, younger ones inevitably replace them – and the youngest workers in society aren’t necessarily the most productive. As a report for the Centre for European Economic Research suggests, this is likely to have more of an impact on the sectors that require more acquired knowledge, such as manufacturing.
• The second is even more intriguing: the most productive members of society tend to be wealthier, and better at planning for their retirement. As more of these older workers are able to leave, the least productive workers are left behind.
• Finally, older and younger workers are thought to have skillsets that complement each other. It’s well-established that mixed-age teams can be more productive than those which are less age-diverse. It’s possible that as the most experienced workers retire, the loss of this collaborative dynamic is reducing productivity.

According to a 2015 report for the UK government by the pensions expert and political campaigner Ros Altmann, holding on to workers for just three years beyond when they would usually retire could add £55 billion to the British economy.

As if that weren’t reason enough, the evidence suggests that retaining older workers would also have the benefit of boosting the wages and employment prospects of younger generations, too. The idea is that if more older people stay in work, they’ll have more money to spend, and this benefits the economy, which is good for everyone.

Written by By Zaria Gorvett for BBC, published on 14th November 2019, click on the picture for the full article

Pay for everything using your credit card. If you fall for a scam, remember that you can dispute the charge with your credit card company and that they can reverse the charges. So, pay with credit card, keep all your correspondence in writing and, if needed, dispute the charges with your credit card company.

Do you have a similar story to tell? A worse one? A better one perhaps? Share it with us at info@yourgreymatters.org

Age discrimination is the hardest discrimination to prove and we definitely applaud and support Duncan Milner in his lawsuit against TBWA. End age discrimination now.

The shadow of age bias in hiring, is long.

Tens of thousands of workers say that even with the right qualifications for a job, they are repeatedly turned away because they are over 50, or even 40, and considered too old.

But as cases make their way to court, the legal road for proving age discrimination, always difficult, has only roughened. Recent decisions by federal appeals courts in Chicago and Atlanta have limited the reach of anti-discrimination protections and made it even harder for job applicants to win.

Workers over 50 — about 54 million Americans — are now facing much more precarious financial circumstances, a legacy of the recession.

In one of the most comprehensive studies, résumés were sent out on behalf of more than 40,000 fictitious applicants of different ages for thousands of low-skill jobs like janitors, administrative assistants and retail sales clerks in 12 cities. In general, the older they were, the fewer callbacks they got.

Those in their 60s “never do better, and often do worse,” than those a decade or two younger, said David Neumark, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, who oversaw the research.

It is toughest for women, who suffer more age discrimination than men starting in their 40s, the researchers found. “The evidence of age discrimination against women kind of pops out in every study,” Mr. Neumark said.

Click on the picture to read the full article

There are roughly 50 million women 55+ in the U.S. While it is totally laudable that 4 are "cool" and many more are still active and vibrant, the reality for women 55+ is even harsher than the reality for men 55+. Ageism is the silent, last bias that we must fight.

Wages for workers between 55 and 64 years old grew by 0.8% between 2007 and 2019, according to a report from the New School for Social Research. 35-54 year olds saw a 4.7% jump during that same period.

The disparity comes down to bargaining power, CNBC reports. Older Americans with limited retirement savings have less of a financial cushion to fall back on, and employers know it. Also, many senior workers are less willing or able to move cities for work, further limiting their options.

The CNBC Report

Older workers haven’t seen a raise. Here’s why

Published Thu, May 2 2019 2:40 PM EDT Annie Nova@AnnieReporter
 
Key Points

• Weekly earnings for workers aged 55 to 64 were only 0.8% higher in the first quarter of 2019 than they were in the first quarter of 2007, after accounting for inflation, according to a new analysis. 
• For comparison, earnings rose 4.7% during that same time for workers between the ages of 35 and 54.
• Researchers say many older workers have little bargaining power in today’s economy. 
• Older workers have seen their wages come to a halt.

That’s the takeaway from a new report by researchers at the Retirement Equity Lab at the New School for Social Research.

Weekly earnings for workers aged 55 to 64 were only 0.8% higher in the first quarter of 2019 than they were in the first quarter of 2007, after accounting for inflation, they found. For comparison, earnings rose 4.7% during that same period for workers between the ages of 35 and 54.

As the wages of older workers peter out, the number of them in the workforce are only growing. Some 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. More than half of the 11.4 million jobs expected to be added to the U.S. economy over the next seven years will be filled by workers over 55.

Why are these workers getting the short end of the stick?

“The main reason people working at older ages don’t have higher wages is because they don’t have bargaining power, and the reason they don’t have bargaining power is they don’t have a good fallback pension,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School for Social Research.

“If everyone has a really secure pension plan, they can go to the labor market and bargain with employers,” she said.

However, today less than half of older employees have access to a retirement plan though their job.
Employers also exploit the fact that many older people can’t pack up and move across the country for different job opportunities, Ghilarducci said.

As a result, employers “can basically offer them just enough money to get them above the poverty line and they have to take it or leave it.”

Another problem? The growth of the gig economy, where wages are low and uncertain, and retirement plans basically are non-existent, Ghilarducci said.

In 2015, nearly 25% of older workers said they were in an “alternative work arrangement,” defined as on-call, contract or gig work, up from 15% in 2005, the researchers at the New School found.
What’s more, workers over the age of 55 are three times more likely than workers under 35 to be in alternative work arrangements.

Harry Campbell, the founder of TheRideshareGuy.com, surveyed more than 1,000 Uber and Lyft drivers last year. He found that 66 percent of them were over 50.
Older drivers find it hard to plan for the future, he said.

“It’s a good job to help pay the bills but very difficult to save for big purchases like the house or retirement,” Campbell said.

A vicious cycle develops, in which older workers lack the retirement savings to negotiate better wages, and then the lower wages they pick up make it all that much harder for them to walk away from the workforce.

“More people will die in their boots,” Ghilarducci said. “They’ll never be able to retire.”
 
Original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/02/older-workers-wages-arent-growing-heres-why.html