Credit Check Bill Is Bad Law
The Associated Press has a story this morning that has been picked up my several New Jersey news outlets about NJ Assembly Bill #A2561. The bill would prohibit most employers from requiring credit checks as part of the evaluation process of potential employees. The bill passed the Assembly Labor Committee on October 14. It has yet to be scheduled for a vote by the full Assembly. Similar legislation failed to pass the Senate Labor Committee on May 27th.
Advocates of the bill say that allowing employers to run credit checks on potential employees prevents people whose credit histories has been hurt by periods of unemployment from getting back on their feet. They are wrong about that. The effect of this bill, which would impose fines on violators of $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for each subsequent offense, will be to make hiring decisions more difficult, should it become law.
Senator Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) , a strong supporter of the Senate bill, said it “would help if we had legislators who were unemployed. We’d be a little more sympathetic to this kind of requirement.” What would be really helpful is if we had more legislators who owned businesses that employ people.
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You hit the nail.
It is a freedom issue.
It’s hard enough to run a business now, that more threats to the only creators of jobs is no solution.
This will not help the unemployed get jobs, because there will be less jobs if this thing becomes law.
I do not see why employers should be completely prohibited, but safeguards and a notice to potential employees should be codified into law.
As to, “Advocates of the bill say that allowing employers to run credit checks on potential employees prevents people whose credit histories has been hurt by periods of unemployment from getting back on their feet. They are wrong about that.”
This seems to run counter to the arguments on other web forums of people who oppose this law, stating that they would not hire someone strictly because of their poor credit rating.
Should employers have access to the applicants divorce records, MVC driving record, health records?
A good indication of whether an applicant will be a reliable employee is his/or her employment history.
If someone has held five jobs over a five year period, none lasting more than a year, chances are that if hired the employer will be looking for a new applicant by the end of the year.
I will be (hiring) voting for Anna Little on Tuesday, but I do not think that as a criteria for her running for office that I should have unrestricted access to her TransUnion or Experian credit score to make that decision.
This is a good bill. If finding a job is not difficult enough these days, having some corporate bozo discarding your application because you are unemployed and falling behind on your bills, is an Orwellian nightmare. No, let your physical presence, talking points and employment history speak for themselves. Unless of course, we are seeking to establish a permanent debtor class, this bill should go through.
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