3/30/2005

More Work For Our Courts

The Supreme Court made a ruling that is going to give the opportunity for many more court cases. On Wednesday, job protections were expanded for nearly half of the nation's work force ruling that federal law allows people 40 and over to file age bias claims over salary and hiring. The part that got me especially was that even if employers never intended any harm. The employers will most likely still be able to win if they can cite a reasonable explanation for their policies. It will just increase the number of hearings in our "unsatisfied, legal-minded people." I have to agree with the business and municipal groups in saying that it could creat costly additional litigation. Whenever you try to please everyone, it usually ends up blowing in your face, which I think will be the case of this decision for the courts. There are so many younger, spunky, more-educated employees that are pouring into the work force from higher education and training. Of course many of these younger workers are more qualified for certain positions than those who have been in the work force longer. I think this is many times what the people are complaining about though.
Posted by at

1 comment:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on FRED's post for a spelling mistake.

This is a good example of an implicit cost. The courts have just increased the marginal costs of just about every business in the country. The effect of that will be higher prices, and less stuff sold, for less consumer surplus. In some sense, this ruling can actually be seen as a transfer of consumer surplus from consumers to the protected class.

A manager can expect that a decision like this will reduce their economic profits in the future.

6:41 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)