Joint Legislative Committee on Discrimination in Employment of the Middle-Aged

The Joint Legislative Committee on Discrimination in Employment of the Middle-Aged was created (Concurrent Resolution, May 7, 1937) to investigate underlying causes of job discrimination of persons over forty years of age and to amend remedial legislation or other measures. The committee existed from 1937 to 1940. It held public hearings and conferences in 1937 and 1938 to receive evidence and recommendations from employees, employers, labor leaders, scientists, government officials, civic organizations, and others. The committee carried out an extensive survey in Rochester industries to determine the extent and causes of age discrimination in employment in that area. The recommendations coming from this survey led to a plan to hire and retrain older workers that eventually covered 600,000 employees in New York. The final report of the committee listed twenty-one major causes of age discrimination with suggestions on how to remedy each. Among the legislation recommended by the Committee were laws to fund extensive vocational rehabilitation and to establish a volunteer apprenticeship program in industry. The committee was successful in passing state legislation to bar age discrimination in municipal and state government and recommended changes in Federal law to bar similar discrimination in Federal employment. The committee also helped provide evidence for the eventual creation of a State Department of Commerce. The New York State Library holds copies of the committee's reports and a number of volumes of public hearing testimony.