If you hire in the Philippines, do not make applicants state their age or date of birth while they apply, and do not put an age preference in your job ad. A Philippine law, Republic Act No. 10911, makes both unlawful for employers. Collect the exact date of birth after you hire, from the ID or papers you ask for then. If you need to know an applicant is an adult before that, see below for what HireFlow does and why.
This post is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different, so check with a lawyer for your own situation before you change your forms or your ads.
What the law says
Republic Act No. 10911 is the Philippines' Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It was approved on July 21, 2016. You can read the full text of RA 10911.
Section 5(a) lists what an employer may not do. In plain words, it is unlawful to:
- Print or publish a job notice that suggests preferences, limitations, specifications or discrimination based on age.
- "Require the declaration of age or birth date during the application process."
- Decline an application because of the applicant's age.
- After hiring, treat people differently because of age in pay, promotion, training, layoffs or retirement.
Section 6 allows an age limit only in a few narrow cases. One is when age is a bona fide occupational qualification: roughly, when age is a genuine requirement of the job itself. If you think an exception applies to your role, ask a lawyer before you write an age limit anywhere.
Section 7 sets the penalty: a fine of ₱50,000 to ₱500,000, or 3 months to 2 years in prison, or both.
What to ask instead
You probably need to know that the person you hire is an adult. You do not need their age or birth date to know that.
HireFlow's application form asks one yes-or-no question first:
Are you 18 or older?
It asks for far less than a birth date. HireFlow takes applications only from people 18 and over, on every job, and does not take one that answers "No": the person is told the job is open to people 18 and over. That is HireFlow's own rule, and here is the reason for it. Republic Act No. 9231, which protects working children, does not allow anyone under 18 to work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and limits a 15- to 17-year-old to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week (Section 12-A). Many Philippine support jobs serve customers in other time zones, so their shifts run through the night. You can read the text of RA 9231.
For your own hiring outside HireFlow, Section 6 of RA 10911 lists the cases in which an employer may set an age limit. Before you add any age rule of your own, check with a lawyer which case it falls under.
Then wait. Collect the exact date of birth after the hire, from the ID or papers you ask for at that point. You may need it then for a contract, payroll or your records. By then the hiring decision is already made, so the date plays no part in who you hire.
HireFlow never asks for a birth date, and its job writer is set to leave age, birth dates and marital status out of the questions it suggests. Any question you add to your own form is yours to word, so leave age and birth date out of those too, and read what the job writer suggests before you publish.
Check your job ad, too
The law covers job notices, not only application forms. An ad can suggest an age preference without ever using the word "age."
Watch for wording like this:
| Avoid | Why it is a problem | Write this instead |
|---|---|---|
| "Fresh graduates only" | Suggests you want young applicants | "No experience needed. We train you." |
| "Below 30" | A plain age limit | Delete it. Describe the work. |
| "Ages 21 to 35" | A plain age limit | Delete it. List the skills the job needs. |
| "Young, energetic team" | Suggests an age preference | "A friendly team that moves fast." |
The fix is almost always the same. Describe the work and the skills it needs. What matters is whether someone can do the work, not how old they are.
Keep every requirement about the work itself. If you are not sure whether a line could read as an age preference, ask your lawyer before you publish.
When an applicant tells you their age anyway
Some applicants put their age or birth date on their résumé without being asked. You did not ask for it, but the law still says you may not decline an application because of age.
So treat it as if it were not there. Judge the application on the work only. Do not copy the age into your notes or your spreadsheet, and do not bring it up with your team.
Be careful, too, with questions that let you work out someone's age, such as the year they finished school. Before you ask anything like that, ask a lawyer whether you should.
Age and marital status are sensitive information
There is a second law to keep in mind. The Philippines' Data Privacy Act, Republic Act No. 10173, lists age and marital status among "sensitive personal information." You can read the text of the Data Privacy Act.
Sensitive personal information may be processed only in the cases the law allows. Consent is the usual one.
In practice, that gives you a simple rule: if you do not need a piece of information to make the hiring decision, do not ask for it. A customer service role rarely has any use for an applicant's marital status. When you do need something sensitive later, such as the birth date on an ID, tell the person why you need it and keep it safe.
A quick check of your form and ad
Go through your application form and your job ad with this list:
- No field for age, birth date or year of birth.
- No question about marital status.
- No age question of your own (HireFlow's form already asks "Are you 18 or older?").
- No age wording in the ad: "fresh graduates only," "below 30," age ranges, "young."
- Requirements describe the work and the skills, not the person's age.
- A note to collect the date of birth from ID or papers after the hire.
- A lawyer has looked at the form and the ad, if you are not sure.
In short
- Republic Act No. 10911 makes it unlawful for an employer to require a declaration of age or birth date while people apply, to publish a job notice that suggests an age preference, or to decline someone because of age.
- Section 7 sets a fine of ₱50,000 to ₱500,000, or 3 months to 2 years in prison, or both.
- HireFlow takes applications only from people 18 and over, asking "Are you 18 or older?" and never a birth date. Under RA 9231, no one under 18 may work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- For any age rule of your own, check with a lawyer which case in Section 6 of RA 10911 it falls under.
- Collect the exact birth date after the hire, from the ID or papers you ask for then.
- Under the Data Privacy Act, age and marital status are sensitive personal information. Ask only for what you need.
- This is general information, not legal advice. Check with a lawyer for your own case.