ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 Starting this Saturday, employers in New York State can no longer use credit history in the hiring process.<\/p>\n
The governor signed the bill into law in December. It takes effect statewide on April 18, 2026. New York City passed its own credit check ban in September.<\/p>\n
The bill also applies to an employer\u2019s decision to fire or promote a current employee. A person\u2019s credit history might affect a lot of other areas like renting or buying a home, but it will no longer have an impact on their ability to get a job.<\/p>\n
There are some exceptions to the rule. Employers can check credit history if the position requires security clearance or is in law enforcement, the position involves financial authority to enter the employer into agreements more than $10,000, and positions with regular access to trade secrets.<\/p>\n
Outside these specific circumstances, it\u2019s now considered discrimination to use someone\u2019s credit history against them when hiring. Dave Seeley is the executive director of RochesterWorks and explained why this matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople face profound barriers to employment. In some cases, a bad credit score is the reason why they can\u2019t get a lease on a home or a car loan. And that makes it less likely they\u2019re going to have success in sustaining employment,\u201d Seeley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the people advocating for this law understand that certain people in our society are more likely to have a bad credit score. People who are probably more likely to be persons of color, also people who were born into poverty. I think there\u2019s a higher correspondence to that,\u201d Seeley said.<\/p>\n
Seeley said while credit scores aren\u2019t typically the top barrier to securing a job \u2014 like criminal history or substance use \u2014 this law can only help employees. Bad credit can affect someone\u2019s ability to find housing, afford insurance and ask for loans in the future, but in order to fix credit, a person needs an income.<\/p>\n
Seeley said this law will also force employers to take a more holistic approach to the hiring process, focusing more on merit and skills when viewing an applicant\u2019s resume.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0credit check<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0credit history<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0credit ban<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 Starting this Saturday, employers in New York State can no longer use credit history in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78098,78096,78097,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-195862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-credit-ban","9":"tag-credit-check","10":"tag-credit-history","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}