Newly proposed Colorado senate bill may ban employers from asking age of applicants

COLORADO (KRDO) -- If passed, a newly introduced bill into the Colorado legislature would take the federal law against age discrimination further by banning questions that may reveal an applicant's age like what year they graduated or attended college.

Senate Bill 58, the "Job Application Fairness Act" would prohibit employers from "inquiring about a prospective employee's age, date of birth, and dates of attendance at or date of graduation from an educational institution on an employment application."

One of the bill's prime sponsors, Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, said the bill would hopefully level the playing field for everyone applying to jobs in Colorado.

"I am a legislator over the age of 60 -- I don't mind sharing -- and when I saw AARP's survey that almost 50% of folks that are 50 years and older are subject to some kind of age discrimination," Jaquez Lewis said.

Here is one of the surveys Sen. Jaquez Lewis references.

One of the concerns about the bill is the cost businesses, especially small ones, would have to shoulder.

Many employers would have to pay to change their online or paper application questions to make sure they comply with the law if passed.