AND · 29usc623:neutral-practice
Isolate the practice responsible for the disparity; workforce-wide age imbalance alone is insufficient. O’Brien held a benefits-liquidation rule applied to hundreds of employees actionable even though adopted once.
Exact element source
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's age; orSource:
docroot/ir/usc/title29.jsonl#title29_sec623; Unicode character offsets [327:564] (end exclusive); SHA-256 d7414b39849853d6a6068539da731f835b09d9f238c028f95f2d0dd04fb6f667.All variants
| Variant | Description | Merits instance blocks | Distinct cases | Example cases (up to 3 per group) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| benefit-liquidation/retirement-eligibility-condition | 1 Satisfied 1; not satisfied 0; excluded context 0 | 1 | /f3d/900/0923-01 — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2018 — satisfied | |
| pension/section-623-i-compliance | 0 Satisfied 0; not satisfied 0; excluded context 1 | 0 | No counted merits examples Excluded context examples: /f3d/887/0799-01 — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2018 — background/merits |
How courts decided this element
| Case | Element | Holding and scope | Variant | Exact source quotations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /f3d/887/0799-01 — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2018 | Judicial impact requirement to identify a particular practice | not_reached Excluded from merits counts background / meritsThe actual pension-accrual holding is under section 623(i), not the catalogue’s ordinary subsection (a)(2) impact route. No generic age-disparity merits outcome is inferred. | pension/section-623-i-compliance | He acknowledges that the plan as a whole, and the 2012 amendment, is age-neutral, for pension eligibility is distinct from age.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f3d_887.jsonl#/f3d/887/0799-01; Unicode character offsets [7646:7773] (end exclusive); SHA-256 1d379fb1c9ccccfd883302d5edad3f17267e485c766f39a3fdc557af10931dc1.The Northern Trust pension plan, both before and after the 2012 amendment, complies with § 623(i). Benefits depend on the number of years of credited service and the employee's salary, not on age.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f3d_887.jsonl#/f3d/887/0799-01; Unicode character offsets [10329:10525] (end exclusive); SHA-256 1d379fb1c9ccccfd883302d5edad3f17267e485c766f39a3fdc557af10931dc1. |
| /f3d/900/0923-01 — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2018 | Judicial impact requirement to identify a particular practice | satisfied Counted merits instance applied / merits basis: law The court finds an identified employment practice; the later RFOA defense does not erase that finding. | benefit-liquidation/retirement-eligibility-condition | Under the pension plan, retirement eligibility depends on a combination of age and a factor correlated with age (credited service).Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f3d_900.jsonl#/f3d/900/0923-01; Unicode character offsets [13686:13817] (end exclusive); SHA-256 a033ea2b8166d55b594539c0a4bfdbfabfd4236926a51cff302f1d045dc73bcf.Here the plaintiffs have specifically identified a cause for the disparate impact: Caterpillar's decision to condition benefits on retirement eligibility, a status strongly correlated with age. No more is required.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f3d_900.jsonl#/f3d/900/0923-01; Unicode character offsets [11615:11829] (end exclusive); SHA-256 a033ea2b8166d55b594539c0a4bfdbfabfd4236926a51cff302f1d045dc73bcf. |
Court interpretations
interpretation
Here the plaintiffs have specifically identified a cause for the disparate impact: Caterpillar's decision to condition benefits on retirement eligibility, a status strongly correlated with age. No more is required.
/f3d/900/0923-01 — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2018
Here the plaintiffs have specifically identified a cause for the disparate impact: Caterpillar's decision to condition benefits on retirement eligibility, a status strongly correlated with age. No more is required.Source:
docroot/ir/caselaw/f3d_900.jsonl#/f3d/900/0923-01; Unicode character offsets [11615:11829] (end exclusive); SHA-256 a033ea2b8166d55b594539c0a4bfdbfabfd4236926a51cff302f1d045dc73bcf.Isolate the practice responsible for the disparity; workforce-wide age imbalance alone is insufficient. O’Brien held a benefits-liquidation rule applied to hundreds of employees actionable even though adopted once.