So you have a felony on your record… Need a job… And nobody will hire you… Our organization, Help For Felons gets thousands of emails each year saying the same thing. Many felons do not know that some states restrict how far back an employer can run a background check. These are what we call “seven year background check states.” We consider these states to be the most felon friendly states to live in.

Unless a felon successfully has their record expunged, a felony crime can remain on the books for life. But in some cases, background checks only go back for a specific time thanks to prohibitive measures taken by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. For example, there is a seven-year rule, which, in general, controls the reporting of any criminal conviction older than seven years (as you might have guessed from the name!).

The Fair Credit Reporting Act

In fact, the 7-year rule states that all civil cases, legal judgments, detention records and paid tax returns cannot be reported in a background survey 7 years later. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law dictating how job applicant and workplace employee data is reported under this rule.

State Laws

Apart from the FCRA, some progressive states also have state legislation and limits on the types of information which can be given out, specifically info related to criminal history, but also about credit and employment, too. But as far as that criminal info, it is the FCRA which provides to framework for enforcement of the rule about criminal information being exempt from being reported.

The rule doesn’t apply in every state, not in every circumstance. There are some exemptions, for instance salary cap conditions. This means that if the person being screened makes over a certain amount of annual income, then the rule doesn’t apply to them…at least, not in some states. And the amount, or cap, differs depending on the state. In Texas and Colorado, the cap is $75,000, which is the highest.

Seven Year Background Check States

Here’s a list of the states that limit background checks to seven years and what salary cap they currently draw the line at:

• California – No salary cap for felons
• Colorado – $75k
• Kansas – $20k
• Maryland – $20k
• Massachusetts – $20k
• Montana – No salary cap for felons
• Nevada – No salary cap for felons
• New Hampshire – $20k
• New Mexico – No salary cap for felons
• New York – $25k
• Texas – $75k
• Washington – $20k

All other US states do not limit background checks.

How States Calculate the Seven Year Background Check Starting Period

How do the above states calculate the seven years starting period? As always, that depends on the state!

In Texas, the timeline begins on the application date. In other states, it may begin upon the release of the felon from incarceration, or at the the end of a parole period.

Each state has its own policies, so like we always say, it is wise to consult your specific state guidelines and educate yourself as much as possible about your rights under your specific location. Never take anything for granted, either, because laws change and what may have once been true may have recently been updated. In other words, do your homework! Talk to lawyer so you know your rights!

What Information Shows Up on a Background Check

The fundamental information which will show up can include the following depending on the type of background check ordered.
● Full name
● Date of birth
● Social Security Number
● Marital status
● Current and previous addresses and telephone numbers
● Credit archive with insolvency
● Criminal records
● Social Media Profiles
● Education records
● Tribunal records
● State permit records
● Medicine, drug test records
● Driving records
● Previous employers
● Prison Records
● Crimes and sex offenses
● Law records and arrests

Finding Work After a Felony Conviction

An important factor for reestablishing normalcy is to find work, in order to not only pay the bills but to supply some meaning and sense to their lives. Yet herein lies one of the largest obstacles!

For starters, convicts may have lost a professional licence or certification previously held, or their job skills may have diminished from lack of use, or from being outdated. Sometimes, it can be hard to get those back. Consider if a felon was once a commercial driver, but then received a conviction for a DUI. Even if they get their license back, it could be harder to get work because of the perception they could cause harm, thus damaging the company’s reputation.

Employers need a sense of security, and the ability to trust their workers. A felony diminishes that trustworthiness, and shakes up that sense of security…replacing it with a sense of risk. The older the conviction, the better, though. But in general, there’s a large degree of difficulty felons can expect to experience when they start looking for jobs once they are free. A prior felony conviction can make it hard to get hired.

What’s a Background Check and Why is it Done?

Briefly, background checks aim to make it possible for employers to have all the information needed in order for them to employ the best and most suitable applicant for their open position. It’ll dig up your criminal history for their hiring team to review, in order to screen for any disqualifying incidents.

As we’ve discussed in many articles on this site, many employers simply cannot give a particular job to an individual with a particular criminal history. Sometimes the applicant has an opportunity to explain the circumstances of their felony, either during the application or, if it comes to it, an interview. If it does come to that, the applicant’s job is not to protest their innocence, nor to admit necessarily to their crimes. The key is to cover the facts objectively but focus on any rehabilitation efforts made, and hone in on the future.

Sometimes that works, and sometimes employers are just afraid to hire a person whom they’ve learned was once a criminal. And depending on the company, the job, and even the state itself, they may have that option to legally discriminate against an ex-con. A few companies in particular maintain high profiles and have a specific image they wish to maintain. Hiring a convicted felon, they can argue, could damage the company’s prestige.

In fact, we see this occur even with persons who have never been convicted of a crime, such as Disney’s recent firing of film director James Gunn, who had previously directed two successful Guardians of the Galaxy movies under the Marvel Studios franchise. He lost his job after several crude Twitter posts resurfaced, because Disney didn’t want to be seen as associating with him. This was a high profile firing, played out over social media, but serves as an example of the concept that some companies just don’t want to employ people who have done something questionable…and a felony usually fits that description. Many states are sympathetic about this, which is why they’ve follow the “seven year background check rule.”

Other rationales for background checks during job application review and recruitment may include the fact that if an employee is responsible for a theft or destruction of goods, then the costs are passed on to the employer.

For instance, if a company works on multimillion dollar planes, they must ensure that any workers near those planes are 100% reliable. Any incident due to an employee’s intentional or unintentional error could be catastrophic, endangering passengers…not to mention increasing the odds of lawsuits and liability insurance premiums for that company, going forward. Such businesses aren’t going to take a chance on hiring a person with a criminal background related to things like drug use, arson, destruction of property, alcohol-related incidents, etc.

This doesn’t mean one should attempt to cover their past when doing a job application form. When employer asks whether an applicant has ever been convicted of a crime, it behooves the job seeker to be completely honest and answer truthfully in most circumstances.

Why All States Should Limit Background Checks to Seven Years

For people who have been previously convicted of a felony offense, life is a lot more difficult. Some days it may seem that every moment is tainted by the past, a past which must be faced over and over as various hurdles present themselves. Sometimes these problems are expected; other times, they aren’t. For this reason, many times a felon’s desired or planned course of action may be disrupted or even have to be completely canceled.

Prior convicts who’ve served time behind bars, for example, may come back into society only to find that what they had left behind is now gone. They may’ve spent years planning their return to their normal lives, and instead discover that their life might never feel “normal” again.

Indeed, a long stint in prison can alter one’s outlook on life, and make it difficult to reacquire a routine social pattern once again, putting them in emotional and maybe even spiritual distress…and may even lead to depression or increase one’s odds of substance abuse (especially if that were a problem previously).

Suffice it to say, all of this can quickly spiral out of control, until the felon starts to experience symptoms of psychological issues. And that’s exactly why it is so crucial that an ex-con try to get back into a normal situation as soon as possible. If there’s a home to return to, or a family waiting, then often this can help them get back into the groove more easily. They must try to distance themselves from the past, while understanding that the felony conviction is going to sit on their record for some time. Then again, sometimes it’s gone after only seven years!

A Few More Points

We hope this post helps explain a little about the so-called “seven year background check states.” Once final note…if a person is every faced with adverse action due to information released during a background check, the employee should be told, and the information about the agency that gave that report should be revealed. Further, the applicant has a right to dispute anything derogatory, as applicable.