Newly proposed bill would ban potential employers from running credit checks on potential employees

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Against the backdrop of dismal job reports,  a Senator and a Rep in Washington are angling to make a serious change to the way people are hired for jobs.    Some but not all jobs run credit checks in the United States to determine employment eligiblity — some argue the practice is discriminatory and targets people of women and color.

The Lowdown

Coming under intense criticism and pressure, the U.S labor market may soon have some changes enacted.  According to reports, a bill reintroduced by  Senator Elizabeth Warren and Rep Steve Cohen would effectively ban the practice of running someone’s credit before hiring them.

The bill would ban the following:

• It would change the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• By doing so it would prevent employers from requiring people to disclose their credit history or perhaps implying that they should. 
• It would also ban employers from obtaining consumer or investigative reports on potential applicants. 
• Further it would also prohibit credit reporting agencies from providing reports to employers, and it would prevent employers from disqualifying job applicants based on their credit profile.

The bill comes against the aforementioned poor job reports and efforts by the Trump Administration to undermine them. An Urban Institute report last year found that about half of US employers use information from people’s credit report to determine job eligibility.