Fired For Being Too Old: Unfair or Good Business?

McCann Erickson denies that Hayes was fired because of his age. But Schwartz and Hayes are suing McCann Erickson for $30 million.

Is replacing older employees with young workers a sound business move?

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

"This is not right," Hayes said of his firing. "I'm young, I don't feel old. I feel like I can contribute all the time."

Can Older Workers Compete?

Murray Schwartz is convinced that older people can do the job just as well as younger people and believes that employment age discrimination laws are a crucial protection for older workers.

But some argue that sometimes older people ought to be fired, saying younger workers tend to have more energy, are able to put in more hours, and are generally more tech-savvy than their older counterparts. Schwartz doesn't think these are valid reasons to fire someone based on age.

"A company shouldn't be able to come and say 'I think a 36-year-old fellow would do it better than the 52-year-old fellow,'" Schwartz said.

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After he was fired, Cousin Brucie didn't look for a lawyer-- he looked for another job, which he soon found at Sirius radio. Morrow has written the book "Doo Wop: The Music, the Times, the Era" and has owned some radio stations. Ownership gave him a new perspective and he now thinks that older people sometimes need to get fired.

Morrow has fired several disc jockeys and believes "it's part of this business."

"We are in a business of change. Many people on the radio station that have worked there 15, 20 years don't fit there anymore," Morrow said. "They might now sound age-wise proper for the format."

Taking Age Into Consideration

There's no denying that there is a cost-cutting benefit to replacing an older worker with a younger worker who will make less money. But protecting older workers interferes with what's called creative destruction, that tearing down and building up again that allows businesses to thrive. Firing some workers often creates opportunity for others.

Roger Pilon, vice president of legal affairs for the libertarian Cato Institute, thinks that businesses just need to do what's best for them in order to stay afloat.

"People have to be free to run their own businesses because if they're not, they could find themselves going out of business in the blink of an eye," Pilon said.