Starting Sept. 3, many employers in New York City will no longer be able to run credit checks on job applicants or employees. An amendment to the New York City Human Rights Law signed by Mayor Bill DeBlasio in early May prohibits most private employers from inquiring into or otherwise considering credit history in hiring and other employment decisions.1 While 10 states2—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington—and at least three localities3—Chicago, Cook County (IL), and Madison (WI)—have laws limiting credit checks, New York City’s new ban arguably is, as one councilman put it, “the strongest bill of its type in the country.”4
While NYC’s ban does exclude several public positions—police officers, peace officers and positions with a law enforcement or investigative function at the Department of Investigation, as well as “an appointed position in which a high degree of public trust … has been reposed”—the law covers nearly all private employers in the city with few exceptions.
