Question

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act mandates that 40 years of age or older be treated without regard to age in all phases of employment (hiring, promotions, firings, etc.) Age discrimination cases are of two types: disparate treatment and disparate impact. In the former, the issue is whether workers have been intentionally discriminated against. In the latter, the issue is whether employment practices adversely affect the protected class (i.e., Zabell, 1989). During the recession of the early 1990s, a small computer manufacturer laid off 10 of its 20 software engineers. The ages of all the engineer at the time of the lay-off are shown in the table below.

Not Laid off: 34,55,42,38,42,32,40,40,46,29

Laid off:         52,35,40,41,40,39,40,64,47,44

1. If a software engineer were selected at random from these 20 to be laid off, what is the probability that the engineer would be 40 or older?
2. Find the median age of all 20 engineers, the median age of the 10 who were laid off, and the median age of the 10 who were not laid off.
3. Given your answer to part a. and b. (and any other information that you care to use) does it appear that the company may be vulnerable to disparate impact claim? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer to part a)

out of the 20 people to be laid off

number of people who are 40 or above = (55, 42, 42, 40, 40, 46, 52, 40, 41, 40, 40, 64 , 47, 44) = 14

Probability = Number of people who are 40 or above / total number of people

Probability = 14/20

Probability = 0.70

.

Answer to part b)

For all 20 numbers

The median occurs at = (N+1) / 2 position

Position of median = (20+1)/2 = 10.5th position

Hence median = (10th + 11th value) /2

10 th value = 40

11th value = 40

Hence Median = (40+40)/2

Median = 40

.

For not laid group, N = 10

Median position = (N+1)/2 = 11/2 = 5.5 th value

Median = (5th + 6th value) /2

5th value = 40

6th value = 40

Median = (40+40)/2

Median = 40

.

For laid off group:

Again Median = (5th value + 6th value) / 2 , because N = 10

here 5th value = 40

6th value = 41

Hence Median = (40+41)/2

Median = 40.5

.

Part c)

Since the median age is almost same for both the groups, there cannot be any disparity in the two groups based on age, and hence the company may not be vulnerable to disparity impact