Years ago I fired an employee for a very serious offense. (today it would qualify as a form of identity theft).
We promoted her assistant to replace her. The woman we fired was 54. Her assistant was 21.
The fired employee waged a THREE YEAR legal battle for reinstatement and back pay. Which she eventually WON!
Based on little more than the fact that she was over 50 and her replacement was 21.
Nevermind that her replacement was efficient, conscientious and good with customers. Everything she was not.
It made my head explode. Fortunately I had moved on from the company and no longer had to manage her. I was 33 at the time.
The fired employee waged a THREE YEAR legal battle for reinstatement and back pay. Which she eventually WON!
One reason not to hire old folks is that if you hire a bad one (bad employees come in all age brackets) it can be VERY expensive to fire them. If you hire a bad 21-year-old, you can just let them go. If you decide to let a 54-year-old go, you may have a steep hill to climb. So companies try to avoid that problem, if possible.