If a Company is a Fair Chance Employer, Does That Mean They Hire Anyone with a Criminal Record?

Many states in the US have passed “Fair Chance” hiring laws, which define when and what companies can ask about an applicant’s criminal conviction history. Most commonly, these laws state that employers cannot ask about an applicant’s possible past criminal justice involvement until after they have interviewed and are considering making an offer of employment.

The upside of this is that more applicants will have a “fair chance” to interview since studies have shown that people with criminal convictions receive fewer callbacks for interviews overall.

from nelp.org

There are now many large national companies who market themselves as “Fair Chance Employers,” which means they follow the guidance that these fair chance laws have established, and do not ask about criminal history early in the application process. Many of these companies can be found by doing a LinkedIn Job search, and filtering to find “Fair Chance Employers.”

While this is great news, it doesn't mean that any applicant with any criminal history will be hired, even if they are the best candidate for the job. These companies will still have policies that dictate what criminal backgrounds they will accept and which they won’t. As always, it will still come down to the individual company and, often, down to the decision of an individual or committee about whether applicants with past criminal justice involvement will truly get a second chance.