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High Court upholds Kentucky retirement benefits plan

Kentucky's retirement plan, which made age in part a condition of pension eligibility and treated employees differently based on pension status, was not discriminatory based on age since the plan's differences in treatment were not "actually motivated" by age, ruled the High Court in a split 5-to-4 decision.

Several circumstances combined to persuade the Court that the disparate treatment was not motivated by age, including: age and pension status are "analytically distinct" concepts; the possibility that pension status was a "proxy for age" was absent, there was a non-age-related rationale for the disparity, the plan sometimes gave advantage to older workers, the plan did not rely on stereotypes the ADEA sought to eradicate, and it would be hard to correct the disparity and still achieve the plan's objectives.

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