December 21, 2012
Carolers donning Santa hats gathered this morning 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 hiring and firing, and job promotion. To the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” the carolers sang, “You better watch out, when you apply / for that job, I’m telling you why / Credit checks are bringing us down!”
The theme running through the songs was that the credit bureaus falsely market people’s credit information to employers as an indicator of likely job performance and reliability. The carolers intoned that the growing practice of employers’ checking job seekers’ credit is especially harmful to low-wage workers, recent graduates, and people of color.
“Experian and the other credit bureaus market credit history as a proxy for character,” said Joby Thoyalil with NEDAP, a caroler and member of a city-wide coalition to end the use of employment credit checks. “This practice traps 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.”
“New Yorkers who’ve been nice all year may still get a lump of coal for the holidays,” said Andy Morrison from NYPIRG. “This time of year, seasonal employees will begin to re-enter the job market and many will be denied employment because their credit history has been marred by things outside their control like medical expenses, student loan debt, layoffs, or discriminatory lending.”
“There is little or no research validating the use of credit history for employment,” said Amy Traub of Demos. “Experian should act responsibly and stop selling credit reports to employers.”
The event was part of an ongoing campaign to press the NYC Council to pass the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act (Intro. 857). The bill, introduced by NYC Council Member Brad Lander and co-sponsored by 34 other Council Members, would prohibit the use of credit checks by employers throughout the five boroughs.
