Senator Warren Introduces Legislation to Prohibit Employers from Requiring Credit Report Disclosure

[ProSense]

Last edited Tue Dec 17, 2013, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Senator Warren Introduces Legislation to Prohibit Employers from Requiring Credit Report Disclosure

Fact Sheet is Available Here

Text of the Legislation is Available Here

Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today introduced the Equal Employment for All Act with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The legislation would prohibit employers from requiring potential employees to disclose their credit history as part of the job application process. It was previously thought that credit history may provide insight into an individual's character, but research has shown that an individual's credit rating has little to no correlation with his or her ability to be successful in the workplace.

"A bad credit rating is far more often the result of unexpected medical costs, unemployment, economic downturns, or other bad breaks than it is a reflection on an individual's character or abilities," Senator Warren said. "Families have not fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, and too many Americans are still searching for jobs. This is about basic fairness -- let people compete on the merits, not on whether they already have enough money to pay all their bills."

A study from the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year suggested that errors in credit reports are common and, in many cases, have been difficult to correct. "It makes no sense to make it harder for people to get jobs because of a system of credit reporting that has no correlation with job performance and that can be riddled with inaccuracies," Warren said.

The Equal Employment for All Act has been endorsed by more than 40 organizations, including 9to5, AFGE Women's and Fair Practices Departments, American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Relations (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Americans for Financial Reform, Asian American Justice Center, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Black Women's Roundtable, Campaign for Community Change, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Consumer Action, Dēmos, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Disability Rights Legal Center, Job Opportunities Task Force, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Action Center, MFY Legal Services, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Black Justice Coalition, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), National Council of La Raza, National Council on Independent Living, National Employment Law Project, National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), National Fair Housing Alliance, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Women's Law Center, National Workrights Institute, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP), New York Legal Assistance Group, PolicyLink, Poverty and Race Research Action Council, Public Citizen, Public Justice Center, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and U.S. PIRG.

Senator Warren's bill is based on H.R. 645, which was introduced by Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) in 2011.

http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=305

Updated to add:

Become a citizen co-sponsor of the Equal Employment for All Act:
http://my.elizabethwarren.com/page/s/creditreportbill?source=blog

[sheshe2]

1. Absolutely correct!

It makes no sense making it harder to get a job!

[hollysmom]

2. ha, I never understood why they wanted it

I know one job would not hire me because I had a bad attitude when I would not give them my social security number until they offered me a job because I said they had no right to it on an application. Later found out it was a horrible place to work. good thing I retired a while ago, they probably ask far more stuff today.

[djean111]

3. The big players - JPM, for example, are afraid that if you have a bad credit record,

you will manage somehow to steal money.
They reserve that sort of thing for upper management.

[hollysmom]

4. well this was a piddling programming job for UPS.

Heard they were big on overworking employees and wage theft

[djean111]

6. Hey, don't you know - all programmers are considered geniuses bent on somehow siphoning

off money! Or maybe realizing that the company is doing that.
I can't get hired at the big bank places here in Tampa due to credit record and age. And, of course, because I have been unemployed.

[CrispyQ]

7. I had an attorney ask me if I was married & had children.

I replied, "Tsk, tsk, Counselor, I think you meant to ask if working long hours is an issue for me? It isn't." I didn't get the job, but who would want to work for an incompetent attorney?

[ck4829]

11. It's a modern day phrenology

[Le Taz Hot]

24. You are never required to put your SS# on the application.

I'm surprised there are still applications out there that ask that.

[hollysmom]

32. well that is what I told rthem about 20 years ago

but then the HR person said that my attitude was bad and they would not consider me. Iam pretty sure that was illegal, but Iconsidered myself a prize employee, so I figured it was a good warning to not work there, and from the employees streaming outof that company and coming tothe one I worked for, seems I was right. They would send people home for not wearing black or brown shoes (salaried people) and dock their pay. The had an 8 hour day but expected everyone to work 1/2 hour before and after because drivers were not paid for chainging their clothes, so everyone had to give free time that it would take to change. Men could not have beards or Moustaches, no one could have afros or braids. there were a million ways they would pick on workers, and never and pros.

[etherealtruth]

47. I don't think there are applications that still do ...

I believe you must sign a "permission slip" of sorts with the SS info.

[Mopar151]

53. Temp agencies "hire" you when they sign you up

Forms W-4 and I-9, IIRC.

[meow2u3]

5. It's about damn time!

Employers shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against people who struggle to pay their bills, most of whom are poor or suffered some reversal of fortune. Employers want to know your CONSUMER credit report for one reason, and it's not a good one: to provide an excuse to deny employment to an applicant down on his or her luck.

[El_Johns]

8. K&R

[MyNameGoesHere]

9. expect major blowback from the

credit reporting conglomerate. I was interviewing for a job recently that provided companies with advanced data mining techniques to assist business in "gathering" information. So I asked them what do their customers do with this? Well one was for research for employment. I tell you, these guys could gather things that would make you cringe. Even a religious profile. Now I know where ex-NSA analyst go to work in the private sector. I told them my morals were in conflict and that I don't think I would be a good fit in their organization. There are other jobs.. I hope.

[haele]

10. Unless you are working in finance where you're actually directing how money is used -

There is really no reason for a credit check.

Now-a-days, there is a huge segment of the population of the US that has personal debt issues or bad credit - what with "pay up front" requirements, high fees, inflation in the price of critical or required services (medical, education, utilities), fewer job opportunities and stagnent wages and the investment/housing boom and bust that caught a lot of people who were less financially educated and drove them into bankruptcy or wiped out savings and retirement just as they were facing a job loss/downsizing, loss of their home, a jump in education costs for themselves or medical problems.

There still is a valid reason for a criminal records check (especially to predict violent behavior or potential for theft or chronic substance abuse), but a credit check?

Credit checks are a HR exercise that is used to knock down the size of the applicant pile. Unfortunatly, this leads to a false idea of what the true number of available jobs to qualified applicants are.
Companies and government statistics can claim there are only, say, two or three qualified applicants for every job instead of the twelve to twenty who are actually applying - and use that as an excuse to claim they need an increase in H1B's or to send jobs overseas.

Haele

[KansDem]

12. Good! Now let's move on to renting an apartment...

I might need to find a place of my own in a couple of years and don't want to have that obstacle.

[kelly1mm]

52. If you are renting an apartment or a home, you are basically getting credit from your landlord. Why

would a credit check not be appropriate in that case?

[KansDem]

57. When I started out in life and needed to find a place to live...

...I would drive around a neighborhood until I found an apartment house I liked. I knocked on the manager's door and he or she would show me the available apartment. If I liked it, I paid a cleaning deposit and the first month's rent, sometimes the first and last month's rent. Then I moved in.

When I wanted to move on, I gave 30 days' written notice and moved out on the date indicated.

No problems, except one time when an "Entrepreneur" bought the apartment house from a corporation that owned it while I was living there. When I wanted to move out, I did the usual 30-day written notice. I also cleaned the apartment which was my standard practice.

The "Entrepreneur" decided to withhold my cleaning deposit as part of the "return" on his "investment." I took him to small claims court and won: "Entrepreneurs" can't keep the cleaning deposit as part of the rent. This fucker didn't know what he was doing except that he had an "investment" that he wanted a "return" on.

If he wanted to play with other peoples' money then he should have got into Wall Street (this was before the repeal of Glass/Steagall so he couldn't have gone the crazy-bank route). But the long and the short of it is: the apartment owner was way over the line in trying to keep money due me.

So I have a tough time accepting the "save the poor apartment owner from deadbeats" argument.

[ctsnowman]

60. Exactly!

Most of the apartments in my area have been bought out by hugh corps.

[KansDem]

63. I mean, I don't have to undergo a "credit check" when I buy groceries!

I don't understand why a "credit check" is required for renting an apartment.

Food and housing are two essentials for living. It's not like I'm not buying a car on time. I don't need a car to live. But I need food to eat and a place to sleep.

If I can buy food with a credit card without a credit check, then I should be able to rent an apartment. If necessary, I'll meet the apartment owner half-way and pay with a credit card. That should be enough to convince him or her that I'm "credit worthy."

[ctsnowman]

64. One of the worst aspects

of the credit check is that they will not look at your report just the score. So if you have a low score you are never given a chance to explain why. Add in the fact that you have to pay a nonrefundable application fee and you have a system ripe for abuse.

[kelly1mm]

65. The problem is that most rental leases that you sign are for 1 year. Thus, even with

paying for the first months rent, the remaining 11 months of rental payments are on credit. I think it is prudent therefore for a landlord to thus determine if you are likely to pay your payments in the future. Would you also say that they could not check the court database to see if you have had evictions filed against you in the past from other apartments?

With the credit card example for groceries, you can rent rooms by the day or week at hotels, SRO's ect, where a credit card would be acceptable means of payment.

I guess I just don't understand why one would think that a landlord should have to take that risk. If I were a landlord (I am not) and I could not run a credit check on my renters, I would a) charge more for more risk, and/or b) have a 6 months lease, all in advance.

[avaistheone1]

13. A very sensible bill.

k&r

[LittleGirl]

14. What I want to know is why Sen Warren

and Sen Sanders and Cong Grayson seem to be the only ones that are fighting for us peons in society?
Where the fuck are the rest of the Democrats in our party to stand up like this and say ENOUGH?
Why out of all of the Congress critters, I can only count THREE that are actually there representing US?
I am sick and tired of seeing these few being named as ones that create bills that actually HELP US.

Gawd I'm sick of the rest of those that pose as Dems that just sit on their damn asses and do NOTHING. damn it.

[polichick]

25. Most of the others are frauds - con men and women.

[woo me with science]

36. I find your honesty refreshing. nt

[polichick]

38. Well, thanks! I think the only chance we have...

of turning the party and the country around depends on people believing their own eyes, ears, brains and instincts - and calling out the corruption.

[MannyGoldstein]

35. "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder"

- George Washington

[Kermitt Gribble]

39. More people need to start asking this question. n/t

[YOHABLO]

42. Because they are bought and paid for by corporations just like Repugs.

[supercats]

15. Senator Warren Seems To Get Everything Right

Thats why we need her in the White House in 2016.

[tblue37]

46. No! We need her in the Senate. She is doing great work there. nt

[FatBuddy]

16. i'm sure Madame Pritzker does not approve

[Progressive dog]

17. This would seem to be a no brainer

I hope it passes.



Just for info, there is a typo in the Senator's press release, H.R.645 2011-2012 was 2nd amendment enforcement act.

[Orrex]

18. Great news! I've had this argument many times on DU

For some reason, a number of people think that a credit rating is a valid measure of employability, when in fact it's not really a measure of anything and is in fact a tool for denying access of one form or another.

The very fact that credit reports are subject to manipulation and review means that they are not an objective tool for analysis and have no place in determining employability or likely job performance.


They should be banned altogether.

[NastyRiffraff]

19. Good for Sen. Warren

I've always hated this "requirement" Really, my credit history is none of an employer's business. Employers are delving far too deeply into employees' private lives as it is. What I do legally outside the workplace is absolutely none of their concern.

[wildbilln864]

20. thank you Mrs. Warren! k & r! eom

[kelliekat44]

21. YES!!! A Senator FOR the people and the workers!!

This has kept my son from getting a decent paying job because of a foreclosure on his previous home due to bank scam and fraudulent mortgage program.

[octoberlib]

22. I think this credit check for a job nonsense was an ALEC initiative

and it's primary objective was making money for the credit reporting industry.

[jmowreader]

54. It also helps them justify H1Bs

Step 1 in hiring an H1B is proving no Americans are available. If you come up with a billion unattainable requirements you can make Step 1 happen.

[Le Taz Hot]

23. Can I Just Say Again

how much I LOVE this woman? The spotlight is on her and she's using it to OUR advantage. Now there's a concept. Are you listening, Hillary? Nah. What was I thinking?

[calimary]

31. Every time I hear that she's helping to build the progressive movement or otherwise strengthen it

and bring it back to a higher profile - or, hell, benefit it in ANY way - I rejoice! FINALLY!!! We've taken such a drubbing for so long, been called names and vilified and kicked around and laughed at and scorned for so long. It's great to have an open, highly visible, and loudly vocal champion for a change! A change for the GREATLY better! I wish we could clone her!

[MindMover]

26. Credit reports = Capitalistic Debtors prison

[Lint Head]

27. I love her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JEB]

28. I think the credit scores are more accurately call Corporate citizen report cards.

Another fucking made up money grubbing scam.

[WillyT]

29. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[politichew]

30. Something I've advocated for a long time...

Thanks Senator Warren!

[Matariki]

33. Excellent. We already have a law like this in Washington State

This is a good thing for the whole country. It always just seemed like a way for credit reporting agencies to gain power and influence. The more places that use them, the more power they have over people's lives. Considering how unaccountable they are, how impossible to even contact they are, their sphere of influence should be limited to people getting loans. Not jobs. Not insurance.

[MannyGoldstein]

34. Imagine. Government of, by, and for The People.

What will those damned Liberals think of next?

Ugh!

[blue14u]

51. I'm wondering what

that would feel like... A "Government of, by, and for the people"... humm

[AzDar]

37. Warren 2016!!

(I can dream, can't I ? )

[Kermitt Gribble]

40. Love this!

So refreshing to hear a voice that actually represents the working class.

[ProSense]

41. Become a citizen co-sponsor, see link in OP. n/t

[livingwagenow]

43. Sen Warren has more spine than the rest of the party combined. knr nt

[Nanjing to Seoul]

44. This is why she is one of the best senators in Congress!

Go Sen. Warren.

[tblue37]

45. Excellent--and about time! nt

[WatchWhatISay]

48. Even worse when they use it for insurance

Homeowners insurance, and probably auto insurance as well will jack up your rates if your credit score is not good.

Insurance is PAID FOR IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why would you need a credit report for something that is paid for before you use it?

[TheKentuckian]

49. Fucking A, Elizabeth.

[aikoaiko]

50. Here's a link to a study that found no relationship between credit scores and performance

and it provides a nice summary.

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/mgr-15-2-106.pdf

[ProSense]

55. Steve Cohen introduced the bill in the House

This is why it's important to have a Democratic majority in the House.

In fact, he previously introduced this bill in January 2011.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr321

[mountain grammy]

58. Yes, of course, I remember that..

of course it died with the distraction of the day from the other bozos in the House. Maybe with Senator Warren's voice, this can be passed, but I doubt it. It's pro people and anti corporation and therefore not relevant in the "news."
Thanks for the post on legislation that is 100% sensible, ProSense!

I have already contacted my representatives, as I did in 2011. Hope we are all doing the same.

[rucky]

56. Signed. n/t

[WCLinolVir]

59. Good. It is none of their business.

[ctsnowman]

61. K & R

And good to see: Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on board.

[polynomial]

62. Injuries or Divorce to bankrupcy

What about those issues in a tight sequestered economy with layoffs leading to financial problems. It baffles me that such tactics are used in business. Imagine if bailouts did not happen those CEO’s would have to stand in an unemployment line being glad it exists. That bailout concept in contrast is a monumental character of business hypocrisy. My credit is insignificant compared to the trillions in secret Federal Reserve money give a ways that transpired over the decades.

It’s a good thing that Elizabeth Warren does what should have been done a long, long time ago to put an end to that type of economic tyranny. The health care issues that companies try to ditch and avoid pay outs is another huge money maker companies will lose when the health care industry changes.

But companies do a lot of illegal stuff with health issues. After time if someone develops a chronic occupational health issue, or slips and falls, or sprain an ankle depending on your age you are in trouble with serious pushback in that some way you will lose your job because the company insurance plan does not want to pay out even though you paid into the system for some ten years.

A friend of mine is currently looking to write a book about his ordeal with the Union Pacific railroad company. My friend has documented investigated proof that the UP railroad management safety team systematically implements safety and training briefings can be arranged to fire or terminate an employee. Especially with an employee that claims an injury, in this case under the federal employee legislative act which is different from workmen’s compensation. The big picture is our government is the face of the railroad industry. It should be interesting to see what OSHA will do in this process.