Guides on choosing, evaluating, and working with background screening providers, from the All Screeners team.
Tagged “state-law” · Clear filter
In a growing number of states, ordering an employment credit check for a role that doesn't qualify for an exception is the violation by itself, before the employer ever looks at the result.
Industry VerticalDispensary and cultivation hires usually go through two separate background checks, a state cannabis licensing check and a normal employment check, and they're not the same process. Here's how the two layers fit together and why you need to confirm the current rules with your own state.
ComplianceA real audit checks five things: is your disclosure form actually standalone and current, is adverse action handled the same way every time, are records disposed of properly under FACTA, is your policy applied consistently, and are you following the rules in every state you hire in.
ComplianceA background check policy written to the federal floor breaks state law in California, Illinois, Colorado, and New York City. Written to the strictest state, it needlessly restricts you everywhere else. Here's the two-layer structure that actually holds up: one federal-compliant baseline, plus state-specific overlays you review on a schedule.
ComplianceScreen too little for a foreseeably risky role and you're exposed to a negligent hiring claim. Screen too aggressively, or the wrong way, and you're exposed to an FCRA or EEOC claim instead. The fix isn't more screening or less, it's tying the screening you do to the actual job.
Choosing a ProviderIf you hire in more than a few states, the vendor question that matters most isn't price. It's whether they actually adjust for each state's rules or just run one national process and hand you the risk.
ComplianceWorking with kids, older adults, or adults with disabilities usually means more than a standard background check. Most states layer on their own fingerprint-based screening rule, and it applies to volunteers just as often as paid staff.
ComplianceMassachusetts doesn't run background checks through county courts. Criminal history goes through CORI, a state-run system with its own access rules, a written-policy trigger at 5 checks a year, and its own ban-the-box layer on top.
ComplianceLos Angeles employers have to satisfy the state Fair Chance Act and the city's own Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring ordinance. The local layer adds its own written assessment before you can withdraw an offer over a conviction.
ComplianceIllinois law won't let you reject someone over a conviction just because it's there. You need a real link between that offense and that job, or a real safety risk, and you owe the candidate a written explanation if you turn them down.
ComplianceHawaii required employers to wait until after a conditional job offer to ask about criminal history starting back in 1998, years ahead of most states. Its lookback rule also treats felonies and misdemeanors differently, though the exact cutoff years are worth confirming before you build a policy on them.
ComplianceColorado's Job Application Fairness Act keeps age-revealing details, like graduation dates, off the initial job application. It's a different law from the state's criminal-record lookback rule, aimed at stopping age bias before a resume gets a fair read.
ComplianceA standard background check usually isn't enough for a school. Most states require a separate fingerprint-based check run through a state agency, and it often covers coaches and volunteers too, not just teachers on payroll.
ComplianceCalifornia's Fair Chance Act sets a separate rule from the state's 7-year reporting cap: no criminal history questions before a conditional job offer, and no withdrawing that offer without an individualized assessment first. Here's how the timing rule actually works.
Report TypesA sex offender registry check searches one narrow database: people currently required to register. It's not a substitute for a real criminal background check, and treating it like one is a common, costly mistake.
ComplianceNYC's Fair Chance Act has a strict order: real conditional offer first, background check second, then a specific individualized-assessment and notice process before you can pull the offer over criminal history. Here's that sequence, stage by stage.
ComplianceRoughly a dozen states restrict how employers can use credit history in hiring, and New York just extended its rule statewide. Here's which states get cited most often, what the restrictions usually cover, and why you shouldn't treat any list, including this one, as final.
ComplianceWhether a role is paid has nothing to do with the FCRA's rules. What matters is whether you use a background check company to screen the person, and that applies to interns and volunteers too.
ComplianceYes, but not with a blanket "no felons" policy. The EEOC expects an individualized look at the offense, how long ago it happened, and whether it actually relates to the job.
ComplianceA promotion doesn't take an employee out of FCRA's reach. The same disclosure, authorization, and adverse-action rules that cover new hires apply to internal candidates too, including the often-missed rule that the disclosure needs its own standalone form.
ComplianceFederal law doesn't ban asking about salary history. A growing list of states and cities do, and it's specifically that question, not "what are you looking for," that's off-limits. Here's the difference and what to ask instead.
ComplianceYes, generally, under federal law. But a fast-growing number of states now limit what you can do with a positive marijuana result, separate from whether you can run the test at all. Here's where the line actually sits, and why DOT-regulated roles don't get to use it.
ComplianceA credit check needs more than the FCRA disclosure you already send for every other background check. What permissible purpose actually means for a credit pull, and why the paperwork carries a layer standard checks don't.
ComplianceCalifornia caps most background check reporting at 7 years, and that cap doesn't bend for salary. Here's the actual rule, where the $75,000 exception claim comes from, and why it doesn't apply to a California hire.
ComplianceFederal law caps most background check history at seven years, but that cap disappears for jobs paying $75,000 or more, and criminal convictions were never covered by it at all. Here is the exact federal rule, with the parts most sites get wrong.
ComplianceAn employment credit check isn't a credit score, and it isn't legal everywhere anymore. What the report actually contains, why more states are restricting it, and why you need to verify your own state's current rule before you run one.
ComplianceColorado and California both cap background check reporting at seven years, with no salary exception on the law that actually governs the report. Where the widely repeated '$75,000 exception' claims actually come from, and why they don't apply to a criminal history check.
ComplianceClean Slate laws seal certain records automatically once a state's conditions are met, but the data your background check vendor pulls from doesn't always catch up. Here's why sealed records still surface, and what that means for your liability.
ComplianceIn nearly every state, a sealed or expunged record is legally treated as if it never happened. What you can ask, what your background check report should show, and the licensing exceptions that actually matter.
ComplianceBan-the-box and fair chance laws control when you can ask about criminal history, and the rules change by state and sometimes by city. Here is the general pattern, plus a starting reference table you should confirm with a lawyer before you rely on it.
ComplianceArrests aren't convictions, and the EEOC treats them differently. What you can legally ask, what a background check report can show, and where the two rules diverge.