Sarah:

Congratulations for having an open mind and hiring older workers. Yes, they are often rockstars once given the opportunity.

I suppose there are some startups that pay low salaries as you detailed.

Here in San Francisco, fresh out of school programmers are starting at salaries over $100,000. With a few years experience, they are getting $140,000 a year plus equity options.

Jobs in support roles other than coding pay $60,000 to start.

People over 50 are often finished with raising kids. Many are divorced or widowed.

Most would be thrilled to make $60,000 because if they are still working, they are often under employed in jobs like independent contractor Uber driver, retail clerk or bank entry level job where employers are simply looking for warm bodies.

Some older workers have other sources of income from investments and social security that would allow them to accept a lower wage. Some are already getting Medicare.

But most employers won’t even interview an older worker much less hire one. How many gray haired Starbucks baristas have you seen lately. And Starbucks does a great job at hiring minorities, women, people with disabilities, and veterans. But no old people over 50.

The problem is that hiring managers create false issues in their minds related to age that become roadblocks to even considering older workers and yet have nothing to do with the older person’s ability to do the job for which they are applying.

The list is long. Besides the ones you enumerated about kids and family causing higher financial expectations, there are others:

1. Higher medical insurance premiums. Older people get sick more.
2. Lack of cultural fit. Older people don’t know the latest hot musicians and celebrities. They won’t fit in. Can’t report to someone younger.
3. Older people are slow and lack energy.
4. Older people are not technologically literate.
5. Older people don’t like to party or socialize with their younger co-workers.
6. Older people can’t hear or see well.
7. Older people don’t dress in current fashion and appear dowdy.

I am sure you can think of many others. But 25 year old HR recruiters want to hire people that are like them. They have no older friends, other than their lame parents.

If you have never seen the film “The Intern” please watch it. It illustrates perfectly the stereotypes that confront older workers.

But the part that is total fiction is a hot start-up company having an Intern program for older workers and not just fresh face kids still in college. Total fiction as I have never heard of such a program anywhere.

Intern programs targeted at older workers might be a smart move to dispel the stereotypes and give older workers the opportunity to prove the can handle the work while adding value to an organization.