Exactly the same argument can be used against people with disabilities...
The details of the EEOC suit illustrate many of the complexities of combating age bias, which scholars and activists say remains widespread — and accepted — decades after passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), posing a danger to millions of Americans who find themselves economically ill-prepared for their later years.
“Research studies indicate that age discrimination remains a serious problem a half-century after Congress acted to eliminate it,” said Alicia H. Munnell, a Boston College economist and head of the school’s Center for Retirement Research. “Many older job seekers face a substantial hurdle in large parts of the American economy.”
While the nation has made measurable strides against race, gender and many other forms of discrimination, progress against age bias is less clear. One reason is that cases that appear to pit the interests of older workers against those of younger ones have been notoriously unpopular with juries and the public.
EEOC filed the case in 2011, reportedly after one of the agency’s officials had dinner at a Texas Roadhouse and began asking about its hiring policies.
Among the evidence the agency has presented: job applications from 38 restaurants in 20 states, on which company officials posted yellow stickers with comments. Besides “Old “N Chubby” they included “OLD,” “little older lady,” and “middle age ... Doesn’t really fit our image.” Also included: statistics showing that, of the almost 200,000 people Texas Roadhouse hired over the years for so-called front-of-the-house jobs, fewer than 3,000 were over 40 — a disparity so great the government’s expert witness estimated the odds of it happening absent discrimination at one in 781 billion.
Asked whether the company did discriminate on the basis of age, according to one employee’s court filings, Texas Roadhouse’s then-human resources director, Dee Shaughnessy, allegedly replied: “Did we do it? Of course we did it. All you have to do is walk in the front door of our restaurants and see what people look like.”