New Study Challenges View of Older Workers : Workplace: AARP survey finds no proof that they’re costlier to keep, less willing to learn.

There is no empirical evidence to support the perception that older workers are more costly or less willing to learn, according to a new study by the American Assn. of Retired Persons in Washington.

“Yet we know from our members that the perceptions about older workers are commonplace, that perception has become reality,” said Horace Deets, AARP’s executive director.

The study, conducted by ICF Kaiser International Consulting Group of Fairfax, Va., attempted to examine the costs and productivity of workers over 50 and to refute the “numerous myths and stereotypes” that plague this group of workers, Deets said.

“These stereotypes tell us that older workers are supposedly too costly, too rigid in their ways and too expensive to retain, even if they weren’t too rigid to be retained,” Deets said.

The study was not able to provide specific data to disprove the premise that older workers are more expensive and more difficult to train. But the lack of data may also be telling.

“Firms are very careful not to assemble data [on age] nowadays,” said Marvin Kosters, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Without data, companies may be protecting themselves from age-discrimination lawsuits, he explained.

Among the study’s findings:

--Many companies do not record or analyze cost and employment data on employees, nor are they likely to examine data by age. The study said that, in the absence of such data, “the impressions of managers on the costs and productivity of older workers become important factors.”

--While salaries and compensation tend to be higher for older workers, this is also offset by lower turnover rates.