Ban-the-Box Laws: What Employers Need to Know

If your job application still has a checkbox asking “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?”, there’s a good chance it’s illegal in at least some of the places you hire. Ban-the-box laws — also called fair chance laws — remove criminal history questions from the initial application and control when in the hiring process you may run a background check or consider the results.

What ban-the-box laws actually require

The details vary by jurisdiction, but the common structure is:

1. No criminal history questions on the initial application — the “box” must go.
2. Wait for a defined trigger point before asking or screening: in many jurisdictions that’s after the first interview; in some of the strictest (such as several major cities and states), it’s only after a conditional offer of employment.
3. Assess records individually — considering the nature of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and its relationship to the job — rather than applying blanket exclusions. Some laws require documenting this assessment in writing.
4. Follow notice procedures if you withdraw an offer based on criminal history. These often layer on top of the FCRA’s two-step adverse action process, sometimes with longer waiting periods or required forms.

Who’s covered?

More than 35 states and well over 100 cities and counties have adopted some form of ban-the-box, and a majority of the U.S. workforce now lives in a covered jurisdiction. Coverage splits roughly into:

• Public-sector-only laws — the most common form, covering government employers and often their contractors
• Private-employer laws — the strictest tier, covering most private employers in states like California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia
• Federal — the Fair Chance Act bans the box for federal agencies and federal contractors until after a conditional offer

Jurisdictions add and amend these laws every year, so treat any list as a starting point and verify current rules where you hire.

What this means for your screening workflow

Ban-the-box doesn’t stop you from running background checks — it standardizes when you run them and how you use the results.

Practical adjustments that keep multi-state employers compliant:

• Screen at the conditional-offer stage. If you hire in any strict jurisdiction, moving the background check after the conditional offer everywhere is the simplest defensible policy — and because most checks finish in 8–24 hours, it costs you almost no time-to-hire.
• Strip the question from every application, including your ATS templates and franchise/location-level forms.
• Write down your individualized assessments. A short documented rationale connecting the record to the role is your best evidence of good faith.
• Mind the interplay with reporting limits. What may be reported is governed by the FCRA and state seven-year rules (how far back checks go); what may be considered, and when, is governed by fair chance laws. Compliant hiring respects both.

Compliance without the slowdown

Our platform delivers reports fast enough to sit comfortably at the conditional-offer stage, filters legally unreportable records automatically, and gives you a dedicated PBSA-certified professional who knows the fair-chance landscape. Get started free — no contracts, no minimums — or call 1-800-935-8537.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Fair chance laws change frequently — consult your employment counsel about the jurisdictions where you hire.