Dominos found out that it’s okay to ask about the age of a pizza, but not of the person delivering it. I’m Amy E. Feldman.
A woman who’d applied for a job as a delivery driver for the Domino’s Pizza franchise in Northern Ireland didn’t care for the question she was asked at the interview: how old are you? She filed a discrimination case, and just won about five thousand dollars. According to the managers there, they didn’t know that asking the question: “how old are you?” is illegal. In the US, is it?
Well, it depends on the reason. If the candidate is being asked her birthdate so a company can conduct a background check it is legal, but it’s not legal if the question is being used to rule out a candidate because of her age, which is what applicants who don’t get the job tend to assume is the reason they were asked, particularly if that question is followed by the next statement made to the applicant: “this job tends to suit younger people between the ages of 18 and 30.”As does, one might add, eating the pizza being delivered at 3am.
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