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Comment by mmhsieh | Hacker News Reader

This agrees with everything I have seen over my career, and adds yet another powerful reason for why age discrimination exists in tech.

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I think the main reason is that young people can be paid less. They also don't realize that your pay is your take home divided by hours worked, and that if you are salaried and working 80 hours a week you are actually making half what you think you are making.

More experienced developers who actually have kept up with their skills are much better, but the fact is that a lot of the development work out there isn't at that level. A lot of it is just plugging and chugging Java, JavaScript, etc.

I bet every sufficiently experienced engineer reading this had the same reaction as you have.

Why is it surprising that hiring managers consider candidate age?

Why is it valuable that hiring managers consider candidate age?

Valuable for who?

It's not surprising. It is, however, illegal.

Which point are you making?

* It’s illegal and therefore people shouldn’t do it.

* It’s illegal because people shouldn’t do it.

* It’s illegal which raises the cost of doing it.

* Other?

Technically, it's only illegal against older workers

Specifically, discriminating against someone over 40 due to age. (29 USC § 621: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/621 )

I was making the point, it's illegal. The person I was responding to did not seem aware.

You responded to me.

In what specific way is its legality relevant? The bare observation that it’s illegal doesn’t mean anything.

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