Problems:

• 33% of working age women, compared to 25% of working age men, faced medical bills that caused them to take out a mortgage on their home or take on credit card debt.
  Losing Ground: Unwarranted Credit Checks Create Barriers to Employment for Women

• 62% of personal bankruptcies were linked to medical expenses (80% of those had health insurance). More than half of those bankruptcies were filed by women-headed households.
  Seeing Red: The Growing Burden of Medical Bills and Debt Faced by U.S. Families

• Overall, 20% of consumers disputed errors and had modifications made to at least one credit report. In many cases, the change to the credit report had no effect on credit score; 13% of consumers experienced a change in score due to their dispute.
  Federal Trade Commission – Accuracy of Information in Credit Reports

• Three U.S. credit reporting agencies account for 96% of consumer complaints. (Transunion, Equifax, Experian)
  U.S. PIRG – Big Credit Bureaus, Big Mistakes

Solutions:

Eliminate credit checks for public and/or private sector jobs

• Eliminate credit checks for jobs based on job category and/or pay

• Eliminate credit checks until after the first interview.

• Eliminate credit checks until a conditional job offer is made

 

Business Insider – No, Your Employer Can’t Check Your Credit Score — But Here’s What It Can See

Huffington Post – Pre-Employment Credit Checks Hurt Those ‘Just Trying To Survive’

CNN – No more credit checks for NYC job seekers

NYC Council Votes to Ban Employers from Conducting Credit Checks

San Francisco Gate – 6 myths about employer credit checks

Bloomberg – States Move to Ban Credit Screening for Job Applicants

The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods

Demos – Discredited Employment Checks Keep Qualified Workers Out of a Job

Demos – Congress, States, & Cities Need to Act on Employment Credit Checks

Demos – Poor Credit is Linked to Unemployment, Lack of Health Care Coverage and Medical Debt

Demos – Crediting Reporting Errors are Commonly Cited as a Contributor to Poor Credit

Demos – How Employment Credit Checks Keep Qualified Workers Out of a Job

Alternet – The Huge Racial Injustice Hidden in Our Credit Scores

Salon – Your credit score affects everything from job offers to home loans — and the way it’s calculated is deeply flawed

CFPB Takes Action Against Two of the Largest Employment Background Screening Report Providers for Serious Inaccuracies

Texas H.B. 449 – Relates to a limitation on the use by state agencies of credit information regarding certain job applicants.

National Partnership for Women and Families – Losing Ground: Unwarranted Credit Checks Create Barriers to Employment for Women

Section 319 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003: Fifth Interim Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress Concerning the Accuracy of Information in Credit Reports

National Law Review – Illinois Employers Can No Longer Use Credit Checks in Employment Decisions Under Most Circumstances

Washington Post – In New York, good riddance to a questionable hiring practice

Washington Post – How the careless errors of credit reporting agencies are ruining people’s lives

Colorado Becomes Latest State to Restrict Use of Credit Checks for Employment Purposes

Federal Trade Commission – In FTC Study, Five Percent of Consumers Had Errors on Their Credit Reports That Could Result in Less Favorable Terms for Loans

U.S. PIRG – Mistakes Do Happen: A Look at Errors in Consumer Credit Reports

The Bay State Banner – City councilors file to ban employment credit checks

Consumers Union – “Big 3” Credit Bureaus Settle With 31 States Over Credit Reporting Mistakes

The Week – How to fix credit scoring

The Atlantic – Can the Flaws in Credit Scoring Be Fixed?