It's probably so they can't be sued for age discrimination

Sucks to be someone who was just about to turn 40 and was affected by this layoff, knowing they'd have had additional legal protections were they only a little bit older.

still crzy to me that you can legally discriminate based on age as long as the person is less than 40. what an insanely ageist law

Totally agreed. All the other protected statuses work both ways, as in, you can't discriminate against people who are pregnant/parents, but you also can't discriminate against those who are not (i.e. by expecting them to shoulder greater responsibilities, or targeting them for layoffs first).