Section 34-1-2. Prohibition of age discrimination in employment

   (a) No person, firm, association, or corporation carrying on or conducting within this state any business requiring the employment of labor shall refuse to hire, employ, or license nor shall such person, firm, association, or corporation bar or discharge from employment any individual between the ages of 40 and 70 years, solely upon the ground of age, when the reasonable demands of the position do not require such an age distinction, provided that such individual is qualified physically, mentally, and by training and experience to perform satisfactorily the labor assigned to him or for which he applies. Nothing in this Code section shall affect the retirement policy or system of any employer where such policy or system is not merely a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this Code section. When the retirement or insurance benefit program of any employer shall prohibit the employment of any person because of excessive age, such person shall have the authority, as a condition of employment, to waive the right to participate in any such program and receive any benefits therefrom. Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to prohibit compulsory retirement of any employee who has attained 65 years of age but not 70 years of age and who, for the two-year period immediately before retirement, is employed in a bona fide executive or a high policy-making position, if such employee is entitled to an immediate nonforfeitable annual retirement benefit from a pension, profit-sharing, savings, or deferred compensation plan, or any combination of such plans, of the employer of such employee, which equals, in the aggregate, at least $27,000.00.

(b) Any person or corporation who violates any provision of subsection (a) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $100.00 nor more than $250.00.

Ga. L. 1971, p. 384, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1981, p. 636, § 1.