There is a downside to pushing out older workers, in favor of younger ones.

Less gray hair in an organization can sharply reduce its innovation potential, which over the long term can greatly outweigh the short-term benefits of younger workers needing lower salaries and costing less in health care. If an organization wants innovation to flourish, the conversation needs to change from severance packages to retention bonuses.

Consider that the age of eventual Nobel Prize winners when making a discovery, and of inventors when making a significant breakthrough, averaged around 38.

(READ the article in the New York Times)