California Employers Can No Longer Access Your Credit Report As A Condition of Employment

As the job market grew tighter and tighter, employers came up with more ways to weed-out job candidates.  One method employers used was to check your credit reports.  The rationale they used was, if a person’s credit was bad they probably were not “trustworthy” enough to be employed in their company.  Nearly 60% of employers began participating in this less-than-accurate practice, considering all of the factors in recent years that have caused many hard-working, trustworthy people to fall in their credit rating.

Well, CALIFORNIA (along with 6 other States) has banned this practice; and 19 more  States are in progress of banning it as well.  This is good news for millions of unemployed and under-employed individuals.

If any employer attempts to have you sign a release to run your credit report, make sure you tell them about the California credit check law, signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2011, and went into effect Jan. 1, 2012.  This law protects MOST, but not all.

CLICK HERE  to check out MarketWatch’s video clip entitled: States Start Banning Credit Checks

Here is a list of jobs that fall into the exception-to-the rule category:

Jobs that allow a credit check include:

• A position in the state Department of Justice
• A managerial position
• A position as a sworn peace officer or other law enforcement job
• A position for which the information is required by law
• A position that involves access to specified personal information
• A position in which the person is a named signatory on the employer’s bank or credit card account
• A position that involves access to confidential or proprietary information
• A position that involves regular access to $10,000 or more of cash

If interested, you can read the full bill,  AB 22,  at: http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_22_bill_20110920_enrolled.html