New Yorkers Call for Local Ban on Credit Checks in Hiring

Speakers included an Iraq War veteran, a retail worker, and a temp worker – each denied desperately-needed jobs based on negative or erroneous information in their credit reports.

The press conference immediately preceded a City Council committee hearing on Intro. 261, at which dozens of organizations and individual New Yorkers testified in support of a strong ban on employment credit checks. With 39 sponsors, the bill has a super majority of support in the NYC Council.

“Despite the fact that I was a retail manager responsible for managing store profits and associates, I’ve been discriminated against in jobs due to my credit report. My credit history does not represent who I am. It just shows that I’m in debt.” – Onieka O’Kieffe, member of the Retail Action Project, an initiative of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

“The evidence is clear that personal credit history has no correlation with what kind of employee a person will be. Many rigorous studies have shown that poor credit can be the result of unemployment, lack of health coverage, and medical debt, and that people of color are disproportionately likely to have poor credit. The practice of employers using credit history to hire or evaluate employees exacerbates inequalities, invades privacy, and traps those who have been most affected by the economic downturn in a catch-22, preventing them from getting a job to pay off their debts.” – Council Member Brad Lander, chief sponsor of Intro 261

“It’s been an embarrassing experience to have to explain my credit situation and the reasons behind it. I believe that using credit checks for employment purposes is unfair discrimination. It is not fair to judge a person’s ability to perform well in a job based on a credit report. A credit report doesn’t tell you anything about the real person and their skills.” – Shelly Martin, Manhattan resident denied employment because of credit checks

“A person’s credit information has no bearing on how they will perform at a job, yet it’s all too often used to prevent many job seekers from even getting in the door for an interview. A poor credit report can often be the result of student debt, domestic abuse, medical emergencies, or prolonged unemployment, and to stigmatize job seekers because of these situations promotes a vicious cycle. That’s just wrong, and the ‘Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act’ will stop this injustice that too many job seekers are facing every day.” – Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer

“Screening job applicants based on their personal credit history has never been shown to reduce employee theft or to ensure a reliable workforce, but it shuts qualified New Yorkers out of jobs every day, worsening inequality in our city. Intro 261 would put an end to this insidious new means of job discrimination, providing the strongest protection in the country against credit discrimination in employment. We urge New York City to pass this strong and effective legislation.” – Amy Traub, Senior Policy Analyst at Dēmos, and author of “Discredited: How Employment Credit Checks Keep Qualified Workers Out of a Job”

“Requiring job applicants to go through credit checks is ineffective, discriminatory, and hurts New York’s communities of color disproportionately. The pain that employment credit checks cause is insidious and long-lasting. New York’s City Council has the opportunity to continue its reputation as a national progressive leader by passing the strongest ban in the nation, and we urge them to do so.” – Bill Lipton, State Director of the Working Families Party

“A worker’s credit history does not determine their job performance. With the current crisis of income inequality and the need to make our economy work again for working people, the last thing working people need is to be slammed by credit checks from potential employers. We need to support working New Yorkers and help them get out of the cycle of debt by creating access to good jobs.” – Stuart Appelbaum, President of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

“Job applicants should be judged on their abilities and qualifications. New York City has the opportunity to pass a strong law to stop the baseless and discriminatory practice of employers using credit checks.” – Wanda Williams, District Council 37 Political Action Director

“Credit reporting agencies are driving this market, aggressively selling credit reports to employers — although the credit bureaus know perfectly well that credit history bears no relation to job performance. New York City needs to withstand pressure by industry and others to gut this important civil rights legislation.” – Sarah Ludwig, Co-Director, New Economy Project

“Employment credit checks prevent too many qualified, hardworking New Yorkers from getting the jobs they so desperately need. That’s why we need to act now to remove this unfair and discriminatory practice from the hiring and firing process. New Yorkers know that when adversity strikes and a person’s credit is damaged — through situations like medical debt or a previous job layoff — that should never stop them from being able to secure a new job and get back on their feet. That fundamental fairness and equality of opportunity are what we’re fighting for with this legislation.” – Council Member Margaret Chin

“Students should not be penalized when we graduate because we had to take on debt to pay for our education. Employers should look at college credits, not credit reports when making hiring decisions.” – Aileen Sheil, Queens College student and Chairperson of NYPIRG’s Bd. of Directors

“The New York City Council and Mayor de Blasio need to enact this vital legislation. I was repeatedly denied retail jobs for which I was clearly qualified, because of negative information in my credit report related to medical debts.” – Alfred Carpenter, Brooklyn resident and member of the NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks in Employment

“The use of credit checks to determine if one is employable has become problematic in New York City, particularly for our young people. For example, many leave school having incurred student loan and credit card debt as a necessary means to receiving their education. Ironically, because of that debt, they have a hard time securing employment due to the practice of debt discrimination. This is a catch-22 that they and many others who have been seeking gainful employment face, and it must end now.” – Council Member Peter A. Koo

“As a lender, we are well aware of the inaccuracies in credit reports. That’s one of the reasons we don’t use them as factors in hiring decisions.” – Linda Levy, CEO of the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union

“The use of credit checks by employers blocks lower income New Yorkers – including people whose credit was damaged as a result of layoffs, medical debt, or predatory lending – from desperately-needed jobs. We believe the City Council and Mayor should take decisive action and pass the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act.” – Jonathan Westin, Executive Director, New York Communities for Change

“It is patently unfair for employers to use credit history as an indication of someone’s ability to perform on the job, so I am proud to be part of the effort to end this discriminatory practice in New York City. There are so many reasons why someone might have a less-than-stellar credit score, including student loans, predatory loaning and the poor state of our economy in recent years. Employers have plenty of ways to determine whether someone is a viable candidate for a job and don’t need to pry into people’s private financial information to make a hiring decision.” – Council Member Mark Treyger

Click here to see photos from today’s press conference and hearing!