December 20, 2013
Carolers donning Santa hats gathered today outside the New York offices of Experian, the nation’s largest credit bureau, to sing holiday songs with lyrics altered to highlight the harmful use of people’s credit information in employment.
Themes running through carols such as “Walking in a Jobless Wonderland” and “Credit Checks are Bringing Us Down” included the following:
- Experian falsely markets people’s credit information as a predictor of job performance and reliability.
- Employment credit checks especially harm people struggling to make ends meet during the economic downturn, including low-wage workers, recent graduates, and people of color.
“New Yorkers who’ve been nice all year may still get a lump of coal for the holidays,” said Andy Morrison, a caroler from NYPIRG. “Many New Yorkers are being denied employment because their credit history has been marred by things outside their control like medical expenses, student loan debt, layoffs, or discriminatory lending.”
“Experian and the other credit bureaus misleadingly market credit history as a proxy for character,” said Joby Thoyalil, a caroler from New Economy Project. “Employment credit checks trap people in a Catch-22, where they’re unable to get jobs because of damaged credit, and unable to repay debts and improve their credit because they can’t get a job.”
“There is little or no research validating the use of credit history for employment,” said Amy Traub, a caroler from Demos who has conducted extensive research on employment credit checks. “Experian should act responsibly and stop marketing credit reports to employers.”
“The New York City Council and Mayor-elect de Blasio need to act on this vital legislation as soon as possible,” said Alfred Carpenter, a Brooklyn resident and member of the NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks in Employment. “I was repeatedly denied retail jobs for which I was clearly qualified, because of negative information in my credit report related to medical debts.”
The NYC bill, introduced by NYC Council Member Brad Lander, would prohibit employers from checking people’s credit, as an unlawful discriminatory practice.
