Age discrimination risk usually appears in casual language: "junior", "mature", "recent graduate", "young team", "digital native" or "too experienced". The better question is: what does the role or service actually require?
Main laws
Commonwealth Act
Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)
The Age Discrimination Act affects hiring, workplace decisions and age-based customer or service rules.
In forceCommonwealthPlain-English guide4 practical checks
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpStart here
Quick read
- Age issues often look commercially harmless until they are written into a job ad, interview question, customer rule or eligibility cutoff.
- For small businesses, the safer approach is to describe the real requirement instead of using age as shorthand.
Likely relevant if
- Employers writing job ads, hiring, promoting, rostering or managing performance
- Businesses setting age-based customer rules, pricing, entry conditions or eligibility criteria
- Recruiters, employment agencies and platforms matching workers with roles
Check first
- Avoid direct and indirect age discrimination in employment, contract work and service access.
- Use role requirements rather than age stereotypes in hiring, performance and redundancy decisions.
- Check age-based customer rules, promotions, eligibility criteria and platform filters.
Start here
Key takeaways
- Use skills, licences, availability and physical requirements instead of age labels.
- Be careful with age cutoffs in customer rules and promotions.
- Check exemptions before assuming an age-based decision is safe.
Practical checks
Sense check
- Scan job ads for age-coded words that are not real role requirements.
- Train interviewers to avoid retirement, family-stage or age-assumption questions.
- Document objective selection criteria for promotions, training and redundancies.
- Check customer age rules against licensing, safety, insurance and legal requirements.
- Review platform filters or forms that screen people out by age without a clear reason.
Plain-English glossary
- Direct age discrimination
- Treating someone less favourably because of age where the Act does not allow it.
- Indirect age discrimination
- A requirement or practice that disadvantages people of a particular age and is not reasonable in the circumstances.
- Positive discrimination
- A lawful measure in some circumstances to meet the needs of people of a particular age or reduce disadvantage.
Common questions
Can a job ad ask for a young person?
That is risky unless a genuine exception applies. Describe the actual role requirements, physical tasks, availability or licence conditions instead.
Are all age-based rules unlawful?
No. The Act contains exemptions and some age-based distinctions can be lawful. The business should still check the reason and document it before relying on an age cutoff.
Does this only protect older workers?
No. Age discrimination can affect older and younger people depending on the decision, context and exception.