What is the meaning of 'to grandfather'?

Answer 1

In legal terms, to grandfather is to accept a differing agreement as already in place and valid under the terms of the new agreement. For instance, if there are new hiring practices that would affect old employees, i.e. "all employees must have a college degree", those employees already at the firm do not have to comply with the new terms. Those lacking in the new requirement are "grandfathered" into the new agreement. They have already been employed at the firm and are good employees, so their terms of employment would not change.

In most instances, the new terms of agreement are for the betterment of the company and would be put in place so that the company would have stricter practices. Those that are grandfathered in would be those employees who do not meet the new standards, but who, by their long years of service, have the experience that makes up the difference between the new standards and their current service.

One "real life" example would be a cosmetologist licensing law. Under the new law, hairdressers would have to complete x amount of school hours and an examination to obtain their license. However, under the old law, y amount of hours were required, so there would be several thousand hairdressers who would not meet the x hours' requirement. They already have their licenses under the old agreement and have worked in the field for at least one licensing cycle, so they would not have to re-train for the new hours requirement. They would be "grandfathered" into the new licensing standard because they had experience which "made up" the difference in the training hours required for new cosmetologists.