Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) introduced a new bill seeking to eliminate potential employment discrimination based your credit score. The new bill – the Equal Employment for All Act, criticizes American employers’ ability to check the credit history of job applicants. The legislators argue that checking applicant’s credit history discriminates against people who have struggled with academic hardship or were victims of a bad economy.
Warren and Cohen noted, “This is an issue of basic fairness….Americans should be able to compete for jobs on their merits, not on whether they have enough money to pay all their bills.” They further argued that it is wrong to shut out people with bad credit from the job market. Such a practice is counter-intuitive – people generally need jobs to obtain the income necessary to pay their bills and repair their credit.
Additionally, for the majority of jobs, there is little correlation between someone’s job performance and their credit report. Although in limited jobs such as those required security clearance, a good credit report may have some relevance to the job, for the most part a credit check is unnecessary.
The Equal Employment for All Act was designed to help those Americans who need a job most – they should not be subjected to employment discrimination based on their financial circumstances.
For more information about this bill or any other employment discrimination question, please contact the dedicated Atlanta employment discrimination lawyers at Buckley Bala Wilson Mew LLP for an immediate case evaluation.