The League of Iowa Human & Civil Rights Agencies

Mario Gutierrez is 68, but still gets rewarded for his work at the Pepsi Bottling facility in Doral. At age 69, Mario Gutierrez arrives at the Pepsi Bottling facility at 5 a.m. and ends his work day about 12 hours later. By the time he heads home, he has visited about a half dozen customers, buying one a cup of Cuban coffee or chatting with another about their sales. While traditional retirement age was four year ago, for Gutierrez it's not even in his near-term vision. ``I feel satisfied,'' Gutierrez says. In many workplaces during the last year, older workers haven't fared as well as Gutierrez, a 40-year veteran of the Pepsi system who still receives company awards for performance. In workplaces of all sizes, many older workers were the first to get the ax, mostly because of their higher salaries and healthcare costs.

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