> “Changes in our workforce are about skills, not age,” Ed Barbini, a spokesman for IBM said in an emailed statement.

I'm assuming this is just an excuse and it has more to do with the fact that their older workers have higher salaries. But would the defense "we fired older workers because they were paid more" hold up in court?

edit: I'll answer my own question. According to an article I found [1]:

> The United States Supreme Court has held that an employer does not violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634, by acting on the basis of a factor, such as an employees’ pension status, seniority or salary, that is empirically correlated with age.

[1] https://aaronhall.com/does-being-fired-because-of-your-salar...