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.
Posted: October 31st, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: NJ State Legislature | Tags: A2561, No credit check for employment bill | 4 Comments »