Here's the question I get asked most on this topic. Can you put "have you ever been convicted of a crime?" on a job application. The honest answer is it depends entirely on where you're hiring. That's not me dodging the question. It's the actual answer.
Some states and cities say no, not on the application, not yet. Others don't touch this at all outside of government jobs. But that gap catches more small employers off guard than almost anything else in this field.
This guide covers what these laws actually restrict, which states apply the rule to private employers like you and not just government agencies, and where employers get the details wrong. There's a state reference table near the bottom. Treat it as a starting point, not a finished legal document. I'll explain why in a minute.
"Ban the box" refers to one thing: the checkbox on a job application asking about criminal history. The rule doesn't ban the question forever. It bans asking it that early. That difference matters more than people think.
"Fair chance hiring" is the bigger idea. Ban-the-box timing is one piece of it. The rest covers how you evaluate a record once you see it, whether a bare arrest can count against someone, and what you owe a candidate before you turn them down over their history.
So, put simply: ban-the-box is about when you ask. Fair chance is about what you do once you know.
There's no federal ban-the-box law. What exists instead is a patchwork of state and city laws, layered on top of the federal FCRA's disclosure and adverse-action rules, which apply everywhere regardless of state.
Here's the split employers miss constantly. Some of these laws only cover public employers and government contractors. A smaller group also covers private employers, meaning ordinary businesses like yours. That second group is the one you actually need to check.
The number I see cited most often is somewhere around three dozen states, plus DC, with some form of ban the box or fair chance policy on the books. That sounds like almost everywhere. It isn't, not for a private business.
Only roughly 15 of those states extend the rule to private employers rather than just government agencies. That's a general shape, not a locked-in count. These numbers shift every time a new law passes.
States commonly named as covering private employers include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington, among others. I'm not handing you that as a final list and calling it done.
Laws like this change often, sometimes county by county. Check your state's current law, or talk to a lawyer, before you build a hiring process around any list, including mine.
Here's the part that catches people even in states with no private-employer law on the books. Your city or county might still have its own rule.
More than a hundred cities and counties run their own ordinances, some stricter than the state law above them. New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago are three examples.
If you take one thing from this section, take this. "My state has no ban-the-box law" does not mean you're in the clear. It means you haven't checked the city yet.
In states and cities that regulate this for private employers, the pattern usually looks the same, even when the details differ. You can't ask about criminal history on the initial application. You have to wait.
Wait until when? That's where it gets specific to your jurisdiction. Some places let you ask after a first interview. Others hold the line until after a conditional job offer has gone out.
Those are two very different points in your hiring process. Mixing them up is exactly how employers end up out of compliance without meaning to.
Washington is a good example of how detailed this gets. Its Fair Chance Act, with amendments effective July 2026, requires waiting until after a conditional offer before you even look at criminal background information, phased in on different dates by employer size. That's one state's rule. Don't assume it's yours.
And one more thing that trips people up. State timing rules run alongside the federal FCRA's disclosure and adverse-action requirements, not instead of them.
You still need a disclosure form, written authorization, and a pre-adverse-action notice before you reject someone based on a report. State law adds a timing restriction on top of that. It doesn't replace any of it.
Timing gets all the attention. This part gets skipped more, and it's arguably the bigger risk.
A lot of fair chance laws don't stop at "you have to wait to ask." They also require what's called an individualized assessment before you can reject someone because of a criminal record. No blanket policy like "no felonies, ever." You have to actually look at the person in front of you.
The common framework, and I used some version of it for most of my career, looks at three things. How serious was the offense. How much time has passed since it happened. And how closely does it relate to the job you're filling.
Some people call this the nature-time-nature test. Whatever you call it, do all three, every time, the same way.
Blanket disqualification policies, the kind that reject anyone with any felony automatically, are generally disfavored or outright prohibited in these states.
Real exceptions exist for roles working with kids, elder care, or certain licensed financial jobs, where a stricter rule comes from a different law entirely. Those are the exception, not a template for every job posting you write.
Arrests without a conviction get their own protection in most fair chance states. A pending charge isn't the same as being found guilty of anything.
Write your assessment down. Every time. "We looked at the offense, the time passed, and the job duties, and here's what we found" holds up if anyone ever asks. "We saw a record and passed" does not.
This section goes stale fast, so I'll say that up front. What follows is what's being reported as I write this, not a permanent record.
Texas is reported to have passed its first statewide ban-the-box law, effective 2025. Philadelphia is reported to have narrowed its Fair Chance ordinance's misdemeanor lookback window starting January 2026. Washington's expansion, mentioned above, is reported to extend coverage to existing employees starting mid-2026.
Verify all three against current text. This is what's circulating in compliance guidance, not statute.
There's a broader trend worth knowing about too. A number of states, Virginia and Pennsylvania get mentioned often, have "clean slate" laws that automatically seal certain older records. Clean slate is different from ban-the-box. It affects what shows up on a background check report at all, not when you can ask.
Here's the part that matters day to day. These laws change every year, sometimes mid-year, with effective dates that shift by employer size. An article you're reading right now in 2026 is not a permanent compliance source either. That part's not optional to keep checking.
Below is a starting reference, not a finished legal document. These are the states most commonly cited as covering private employers. Several "trigger point" cells say "verify" on purpose, because the exact timing genuinely varies and I'm not going to guess at an answer I haven't confirmed.
Check every row against current law, or with a lawyer, before you build a hiring process around it. Last verified for this article: August 2026.
| State | Covers private employers | Typical trigger point | Individualized assessment generally required |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Yes | After conditional offer | Yes |
| Colorado | Yes | After conditional offer | Yes |
| Connecticut | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Hawaii | Yes | After conditional offer | Yes |
| Illinois | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Maine | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Maryland | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Massachusetts | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Minnesota | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| New Jersey | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| New Mexico | Yes | After conditional offer | Yes |
| Oregon | Yes | After conditional offer | Yes |
| Rhode Island | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Vermont | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| Washington | Yes | After conditional offer (2026 amendments expand coverage) | Yes |
| DC | Yes | Verify | Yes |
| All other states | Public/contractor-only, or no state law | Check local ordinance | Check local ordinance |
That last row matters most. A "no" in the first column doesn't mean you're unregulated. It means you check the city next.
Fair chance compliance isn't a one-time project. It's jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and it changes on its own schedule, not yours. Getting the timing and the assessment right protects your business about as much as the candidate across from you.
If you're building this process from scratch, use Find Your Match to find a provider whose process is actually built around fair chance timing, not bolted on afterward. If you'd rather have someone walk through your specific states with you, True Fit is built for exactly that.