How status-group power differentials shape age discrimination within U.S. federal agencies: Evidence from EEOC formal complaint filings, 2010–2019

Abstract

Age discrimination is a systemic problem of the American administrative state that undermines both the caliber and performance of the U.S. federal government workforce. A theory is proposed, anchored on discrimination against age-eligible employees (age 40 and over) representing a social identity group, to explain how status-group power differentials between supervisors and non-supervisors within U.S. federal agencies explain the organizational incidence of formal discrimination complaints. The theory predicts that the incidence of age discrimination formal complaints is declining in the share of supervisory personnel who are discrimination age-eligible while increasing in the share of non-supervisory personnel members who belong to this group. Evidence is obtained for these hypotheses using objective data on Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's age discrimination formal complaints about an unbalanced panel of 130 U.S. federal agencies between 2010 and 2019. The empirical evidence underscores the structural challenges to combatting ageism within the U.S. federal government workforce during an era of an intergenerational personnel change.