California Background Check Laws 2022
The FCRA promotes accuracy, fairness, and privacy for the information contained in consumer reporting agency files. California employers, like all employers, are required to follow FCRA guidelines.
The ICRAA (Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act) has specific notification requirements, reporting restrictions, and more in the State of California.
The CCRAA follows alongside ICRAA in most ways but deviates concerning credit reports.
This section states the following:
“The report to the user and to the subject of the report shall be provided contemporaneously and at no charge to the subject person.”
The California Information Privacy Act, or CIPA, (Cal. Civil Code §§ 1785 et seq.) takes the minimum employee privacy protections set forth by the FCRA and expands on them.
CA Labor Code 432.7
According to CA Labor Code 432.7, California employers, either public or private, are prohibited from asking a job applicant about some aspects of their criminal history,
Ban the Box and Fair Hiring Laws
Ban the Box is the name of a campaign that advocates on behalf of ex-offenders across the United States. It aims to get rid of the check box on job applications that asks if an applicant has a criminal background.
The Ban the Box initiative aims to reduce the hurdles to employment that most ex-convicts confront. Proponents of this trend argue that before being asked about any criminal background, a former offender should be able to demonstrate his or her abilities and work experience.
The state of California is a “Ban the Box” state. Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill No. 1008 on October 14, 2017, and it went into effect on January 1, 2018.
The California Fair Chance Act is another name for this law. It makes it illegal for private businesses with five or more employees to inquire about a job applicant’s criminal background before issuing a conditional job offer.
Antidiscrimination Laws
Most companies are prohibited from discriminating against candidates based on certain traits, such as race and ethnicity, under federal and California employment regulations. Because African Americans and Latinos have disproportionately higher arrest and incarceration rates, an employer who adopts a blanket policy of barring all applicants with a criminal past may be committing race discrimination.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal body in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination rules, has provided recommendations on how businesses can screen out applicants with criminal backgrounds who represent an excessive risk without discriminating. Employers should also give candidates with a criminal record the opportunity to explain the circumstances and submit mitigating facts demonstrating that the employee should not be rejected based on the offense, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ban-the-box law in California effectively incorporates these rules into its operations.
Our Process For California Screening
What Does a California Background Check Show?
How Do I Get a Background Check in California?
If you are an individual and looking to run a background check on yourself in the state of California, use this option. Our reports roughly take a few business hours to process.
If you are a business owner of an HR professional looking to hire an agency to manage background checks for you in California, get in touch for a quote.
Our screening specialists search through jurisdictional court records in more than 3,340 counties in the United States. These records provide the most up-to-date and accurate information possible.