You are almost there, it's not about age, it is not even about salaries as many here suggest, it is about government's hands in the market - labour laws. There are entire industries based around suing employers, do you ever hear radio shows where some lawyers is giving advice on severance pay, suing the employer, etc.? That is what it is all about. It is about the fact that you cannot have a contract without government intervening into the business and forcing you with all its guns to attempt and avoid hiring people that can sue you because they are part of some protected class.
Hiring young white males seems to be the most optimal solution obviously, since they are the least government protected class of all.
As to myself, I hire plenty of students or new grads myself, not discriminating on age, but discriminating on their newness to the process and their desire to give it a try. I do not particularly care about your age, I do however pay lower wages than large companies and so I can only get people with very little (if any) experience. When a person comes in for the interview, I explain what we do, ask them what their goals are and then make a simple enough offer: here is the salary I can start you with (something similar to 13USD/hour), however if you cannot be productive right away, I am not paying you until I can put you on a project. I teach the new hires, it's about a 3 week crash course on the technologies we use, our frameworks, languages, db, our code generators, etc. They are given a task at a time, they go through the tasks and as they do, they are classified into different categories, this puts them on different projects.
As they become productive (they are on projects) they start getting paid and if they are good they get an equivalent of $1/hour raise every few months (not a guarantee though, nothing is).
So that's my approach to it and it is good for the beginners REGARDLESS of their age, but I WILL NOT hire somebody who is too close to the 'retirement', I do not need government regulations on my ass, any of this nonsense that says that the older the person the more difficult it is for them to find a new job and thus they must be given various entitlements by the employer are playing AGAINST the older people. You think government regulations prevent age (or any other) discrimination? They are the CAUSE of the discrimination.