Why Do Some Federal Jobs Have Age Restrictions?

Age restrictions come as a source of amazement for many new job seekers, and that’s completely understandable.  After all, the federal government is supposed to be one of the most inclusive employers, and besides that, it actually prohibits age discrimination at companies within the private sector!  Regardless of how you feel about the federal government’s mandatory age standards for certain positions, there are actually some legitimate reasons behind these limits.

           

One of the most widely-known restrictions is the maximum hiring age of 37 for some law enforcement positions, such as series 1811 Criminal Investigators.  While it might appear that the restriction is meant to prohibit older candidates from being hired over younger, presumably more physically fit candidates, to make that argument would actually be discriminatory.  In reality, this restriction has more to do with how the retirement systems work for these positions.  Federal law enforcement officers are eligible to retire after 20 years of service, but they are forced to retire when they turn 57 years old.  If someone was hired after age 37, they wouldn’t have enough time to earn a pension, which is one of the major benefits of federal employment.

Of course there are loopholes to some of these restrictions, most notably for prior service veterans.  In the above example, a person who’d served on active duty in the military for four years could be an eligible candidate for an additional four years, up to age 41, as long as they planned to “buy back” their military time and add it to their civil service pension (more on that process in a future post!)  Maximum age limits for new hires can be frustrating, and for good reason.  I’ve met several firefighters who had been working as contractors when it was announced that their jobs would be in-sourced, or converted to government jobs.  Unfortunately, these well-qualified people were several years too old to re-apply for the work that they were already doing!

For current employees, there are still a few jobs that have mandatory retirement ages, but these are slowly disappearing as today’s seniors are more active than ever, and many want to stay productive in the workplace.  But in the Department of State’s foreign service, for example, employees are forced to retire at 65 years old.  For those members who still want to contribute to the agency’s mission, they’d have to re-apply to other jobs within the federal civil service.  I wouldn’t worry too much about forced retirement ages, though, since these policies would most likely be re-examined if any significant pension reform legislation was ever passed through Congress.         

On the other side of the coin, it’s interesting to note that the federal government has very few MINIMUM hiring ages, and these are only in fields like law enforcement or security.  This is one of the reasons why the G is one of the most popular employers for recent college graduates.  So for all you twenty-somethings, dust off those resumes and start applying!