U.S. Labor Department Facilitating Age Discrimination

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Americans age 40 and older have a new reason to fear age discrimination: the United States Department of Labor.

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is at the root of the problem. This program is administered by the Labor Department and gives businesses tax breaks for hiring people from certain target groups.1

Among those groups are people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food stamps.2 At first glance, that would seem to make sense. Helping the poor is the right thing to do. However, the Labor Department states on its website that SNAP recipients range in age from 18 to 39 years old. 2

That age range is inaccurate, as is proven by a 2013 report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) entitled, “Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2013.” 3