Victory! NYC Bans Employment Credit Checks

“I felt like my choices for a better life were taken away when I found out that credit checks were blocking me from getting a job. This law will make sure that other people won’t have to go through what I experienced.”

— Shelly Martin, Harlem resident & member of NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks  in Employment

Shelly Martin joined the NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks in Employment after she discovered that prospective employers were denying her jobs based on information in her credit report.  Like countless other New Yorkers, Shelly faced an impossible Catch-22 – unable to pay off her debts without a job, and unable to land a job because of her debts.

On Thursday, Shelly joined us on the steps of City Hall to celebrate passage of a historic civil rights bill to ban employment credit checks in NYC!

New Economy Project launched the city-wide effort to end employment credit checks in 2012, and built a stalwart coalition of 79 community, labor, civil rights, and student groups that worked tirelessly to win this victory. We took on this issue as a matter of racial and economic justice, as it was clear that employment credit checks were unjust and perpetuated inequality and poverty. Read our full statement.

We are proud to have helped advance the strongest law of its kind in the country. Now before the mayor for his signature, the new law will ban employers in NYC from requesting or using credit information for hiring, promotions or any other employment-related decision.

High fives to our amazing Coalition partners! We thank the NYC Council for its tremendous support of the bill, especially the bill’s chief sponsor Council Member Brad Lander for championing the legislation and the Progressive Caucus for making it a top priority.

Check out some of the media coverage:

• NY1 Inside City Hall, Councilman, Expert Discuss Legislation to Make it Illegal for Employers to Run Credit Checks on Job Seekers
• Wall Street Journal, City Acts to Limit Credit Checks  
• City Limits, Advocates Hail NYC Credit-Check Ban as Strongest in U.S.
• El Diario, Concejo Aprueba Ley que Prohíbe a Empleadores Verificar Historial Crediticio
• New York Times, Group Urges NYC to End Credit Checks by Employers
• WNYC, Bill Would Ban Credit Checks By Employers