Employer Asking for Year of Graduation could be Evidence of Age Discrimination

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently won a jury verdict finding that RockAuto  discriminated against a prospective employee by failing to hire him due to his age.  The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that the potential employee applied for a job as a Supply Chain Manager in 2016, and that he had many years of relevant experience.  After receiving the application, RockAuto asked the applicant when he had received his undergraduate degree.  The applicant informed RockAuto of the year (more than twenty years before his application), and he was rejected for the position the very next day.  Instead, RockAuto hired significantly younger and less qualified candidates for the position.  This conduct is a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which prohibits discrimination against employees and applicants on this basis of their age.  See EEOC v. RockAuto, LLC, No. 3:18-cv-00797 (W.D. Wis. 2020).