Section 10 Older Workers Benefit Protection Act

• Library: Employment Discrimination 2008

Before the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio v. Betts, 492 U.S. 158 (1989), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) interpreted 29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(2) as prohibiting discrimination based on age in employee benefit plans and requiring “equal cost or equal benefit” between older and younger employees. In Betts, however, the Supreme Court held that § 623(f)(2) exempted employee benefit plans from Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA),
29 U.S.C. §§ 621 et seq., coverage unless the employer truly designed the benefit plan to disguise age discrimination in employment. Betts, 492 U.S. at 180. In response to Betts, the United States Congress passed the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), Pub. L. No. 101-433, 104 Stat. 983, which reinstated the EEOC’s “equal cost or equal benefit” rule. Now the ADEA expressly requires that an employee benefit plan make payments or provide benefits to older employees that are “no less than that made or incurred on behalf of a younger worker.” Section 623(f)(2)(B)(i).

The OWBPA also amended the ADEA to establish minimum standards for releases and waivers of ADEA claims to help ensure that a release is knowing and voluntary. The ADEA provides two...