Congress passes the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protecting individuals who are between 40 and 65 years of age from discrimination in employment. The Department of Labor has enforcement responsibility.
EEOC - a bit of history
“Where EEOC was unsuccessful in conciliating the complaints, the statute provided only that individuals could bring private lawsuits, and where EEOC found evidence of "patterns or practices" of discrimination, EEOC could then refer such matters to the Department of Justice for litigation.
As will be seen, the decades since 1964 have seen a steady, growing emergence of EEOC as the lead enforcement agency in the area of workplace discrimination, as Congress intended. Over the four decades that EEOC has existed, it has become a respected advocate for the communities it was created principally to serve. Those communities include all peoples of the nation because discrimination can occur to anyone of any race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, and of either s-x. EEOC recognizes that as an agency of the government, it has a role of fairness not only to those protected classes whose forebears helped forge the alliances that resulted in the passage of civil rights legislation, but also to the employers and unions that are subject to EEOC jurisdiction.
EEOC has worked tirelessly to eliminate discrimination from America's workplaces since its creation. The hard work, idealism, and commitment of EEOC employees has been instrumental in widening the doors of employment opportunity for all Americans and helping to create a standard of living for this nation's diverse citizenry that is the envy of the world. But challenges still abound. In far too many workplaces, old ways die hard. Discrimination, while often boldly evident, persists now in subtle forms as well. The need for an agency like EEOC is as evident today as before 1964. This is the unfortunate but true state of affairs as the nation enters the new Millennium.”
In Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., the Supreme Court rules that the plaintiffs can win in an employment discrimination case if they show that the employer's reason for a challenged action is pretextual (not true). The plaintiff does not have to prove that discrimination was the real reason -- it can be inferred from the facts. The unanimous Court states, "It is permissible for the trier of fact to infer the ultimate fact of discrimination from the falsity of the employer's explanation."
Excerpted from EEOC web site
FYI and food for thought