34 straight answers on cost, timing, what a report contains, the rules that apply, and how to pick a provider — each one linked to the guide or tool that goes deeper.
The five things employers most often want to know: cost, speed, contents, rules, and how to choose.
An employment background check costs about $25 to $85 per candidate. Most standard packages finish in under one business day. A standard report covers identity, criminal history at the county, state, and federal level, and any verifications you add. The FCRA requires a standalone disclosure, written authorization, and a two-step adverse action process at every employer size. And providers should be compared on accreditation, court-of-record verification, turnaround, support model, and fully loaded price rather than headline rate.
An employment background check typically costs $25 to $85 per candidate. A basic identity-and-criminal package is $24.95, the mid-tier package most employers use is $44.95, and a comprehensive package for regulated roles is $84.95. Individual searches range from $3 for an SSN address trace to $120 for an international criminal search.
Full cost breakdownMost employers budget $35 to $60 per employee. The number moves with how many counties are in the candidate's address history, how many employment and education verifications you order, and whether the role requires drug testing, an MVR, or healthcare sanction screening.
Estimate your spendCourts set their own access and search fees and those are passed through. A county criminal search averages about $6.25 in electronic-access states such as Florida, Iowa, and Maryland; the national average is $8.61; and a Massachusetts statewide CORI search runs about $90 because of state repository fees.
State-by-state pricingNot at SafestHires. There is no platform fee, no per-seat license, no setup charge, no annual contract, and no monthly minimum. You pay per check on Net 15 terms. Volume discounts start at 5% off at 50 checks a month and reach 22% at 500.
See pricingNo usable one. Free people-search results are not consumer reports: the data is uncorroborated aggregator content rather than a court-of-record result, and using it for a hiring decision puts the employer outside the FCRA framework that governs disclosure, authorization, dispute handling, and adverse action.
What a real report containsThe median completion time across all SafestHires packages is 3 hours 47 minutes, and 92% of standard packages finish within one business day. Multi-state, federal, international, education, and employment-verification add-ons typically push a full package to one to three business days.
Turnaround guideFour causes account for nearly all delays: a manual-access county court that requires an in-person clerk visit, a slow employment or education verifier, incomplete candidate paperwork such as a missing prior address, and a common-name hit that requires a personal identifier review before it can be reported.
Estimate your turnaroundManual-access jurisdictions run longest — Mississippi, West Virginia, and Wyoming have no statewide electronic repository and typically require two to four business days, along with rural counties in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
50-state timing tableUsually. Instant-return components — SSN trace, national criminal database, sex offender registry, OFAC, healthcare sanctions, FMCSA PSP — return in minutes, and county criminal in electronic-access states completes within business hours the same day.
Open the calculatorCredentialing a new account typically completes in about one business day. That includes verifying the business and confirming permissible purpose, after which logins are issued and the first order can be placed immediately.
Start an accountA standard package returns an SSN trace with address history, a national criminal database scan, the sex offender registry, county criminal court records for each jurisdiction lived or worked in during the lookback window, federal criminal records, and OFAC and global sanctions. Optional components include employment, education, and license verification, motor vehicle records, civil court records, a Financial Risk Search, and drug screening.
Full component guideUnder the federal FCRA, non-conviction records are capped at seven years. Convictions may be reported indefinitely unless a state imposes a shorter window — California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New York, DC, and Texas all impose stricter caps.
Lookback caps by stateSafestHires does not offer a consumer credit file for employment purposes. For roles with genuine financial exposure we offer a Financial Risk Search covering bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens sourced from PACER and county civil records — a public-record search priced at $14.
Search catalogNo. Sealed, expunged, and — in states such as Connecticut — erased records are suppressed and must not be reported or relied on. Several states also restrict reporting of non-conviction dispositions entirely.
State reporting rulesA county search queries the court of record where a case was actually filed and is the most accurate source. A statewide search queries a state repository, whose completeness varies significantly by state. A national criminal database is a broad aggregated index used as a pointer — every hit it produces must be confirmed at the court of record before it can be reported.
Glossary of termsFACIS is a healthcare sanction and exclusion screen. Level 1M covers the OIG-LEIE and GSA SAM federal exclusion lists; Level 3 adds state Medicaid exclusion lists, licensing board actions, and debarments. Any organization billing federal healthcare programs should run it before hiring clinical, billing, or vendor personnel.
FACIS by stateThree things in sequence: a clear standalone written disclosure that a consumer report may be obtained, the candidate's written authorization before the report is ordered, and a two-step adverse action process before declining someone based on report content.
FCRA checklistAdverse action is a hiring decision made against a candidate based in whole or in part on a consumer report. It requires a pre-adverse notice with a copy of the report and the Summary of Rights, a reasonable window for the candidate to respond, and then a final adverse action notice.
Adverse action guideThe FCRA requires a reasonable period rather than a fixed number. Five business days is the widely used practice, and some state and local ordinances require longer or add an individualized-assessment step.
Calculate the timelineBan-the-box and fair-chance laws restrict when in the hiring process an employer may ask about or act on criminal history. Coverage now spans fifteen states plus DC and the USVI, along with more than twenty cities and counties, and thresholds vary by employer size and role.
Check your jurisdictionNot in a growing number of jurisdictions. Salary-history bans now cover roughly twenty states and numerous cities, and several also require pay-range disclosure at the offer or posting stage.
Multi-state obligationsIt depends on the state and the role. Several states, including California and Washington, restrict pre-employment testing for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites, with carve-outs for safety-sensitive and federally regulated positions. DOT-regulated testing is unaffected.
Marijuana laws by stateIt is a documented, candidate-specific evaluation of a conviction before disqualifying someone — weighing the nature of the offense, the time elapsed, and the relationship to the job. New York's Article 23-A prescribes an eight-factor version by statute, and the EEOC recommends the practice generally.
Fair chance requirementsThe FCRA applies to employers of every size. Some state and local ordinances have employee-count thresholds, so coverage varies, but the federal disclosure, authorization, and adverse action obligations do not have a small-business exemption.
Small business guideThe candidate contacts the consumer reporting agency, which reinvestigates the disputed item at the source. Do not finalize an adverse decision while a dispute is open — reinvestigate first and act on the corrected result.
File a disputeScore them on the same criteria rather than on marketing claims: accreditation, data sourcing and court-of-record verification, turnaround, dispute rates, technology and integrations, candidate experience, security posture, support model, and fully loaded commercial terms.
Vendor scorecardOne with no minimum volume, no seat licenses, transparent per-check pricing, and support staffed by people who can help you work through a record. Self-service platforms are fast to sign up for but push compliance judgment onto you.
Built for small businessEach has a detailed side-by-side comparison covering turnaround, court coverage, pricing structure, support model, and compliance workflow, written to be usable whether or not you pick us.
All comparisonsYes. There are native connectors for the common ATS and HRIS platforms plus XML order-entry and XML result-receipt for custom systems, so orders and results move without rekeying.
Integration partnersLook for SOC 2 Type II, PBSA membership, and independent accreditation. SafestHires holds SOC 2 Type II annually, is a PBSA member, is NBSAB Accredited, and is NCRA Enterprise Certified.
Our attestationsUse a structured evaluation with weighted criteria so responses are comparable. Our downloadable RFP template includes the question set and a scoring spreadsheet.
Download the RFP templateYes. Complete the personal agreement, receive login credentials, place and pay for the order, and the finished report is emailed to you. Reviewing your own record before applying is the simplest way to catch an error while there is still time to dispute it.
Self-check guideA genuine request comes from a named employer you have applied to, links to a standalone disclosure and authorization, and never asks for payment from the candidate. If anything looks off, contact us directly before entering information.
Trust and verificationYou are entitled to a copy of the report and a Summary of Rights before the decision is final, a reasonable window to respond, and a free reinvestigation of anything you dispute. Trafficking survivors have an additional right to have adverse items caused by trafficking blocked.
Victim protections