Yesterday, Pillsbury attorneys Ken Taber, Paula Weber, Rebecca Carr Rizzo and Stephen Asay published their advisory titled “Ban the Box” Legislation Expands Across the Country Employers Need to Update Employment Applications and Policies. The Advisory discusses the growing national movement to “Ban the Box” – i.e., to prohibit questions about a job applicant’s criminal history on employment applications.
Currently, “Ban the Box” laws are primarily targeted at public employers; however, there are increasing efforts to impose these same restrictions on private employers. New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco have become the latest jurisdictions to pass such legislation. Laws prohibiting private employers from seeking certain information regarding criminal convictions are already in place in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, as well as various cities and municipalities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Seattle.
Employers would be well-advised to review and update their employment applications and policies based on these increasingly common restrictions.
If you have any questions about the content of this blog, please contact the Pillsbury attorney with whom you regularly work or Ken Tabor, Paula Weber, Rebecca Carr-Rizzo, or Stephen Asay, the authors of this blog.