Ban the Box laws by jurisdiction

State-level Fair Chance laws

City and county ordinances we monitor

SafestHires tracks municipal ordinances that frequently catch multi-state employers by surprise — the obligations stack on top of the state rule above. If you operate in any of these jurisdictions, your consent form, adverse-action template, and ATS knock-out logic need to be tuned for each one.

• Austin, TX (private employers, 15+)
• Baltimore, MD (10+ employees)
• Buffalo, NY
• Chicago, IL (15+)
• Columbia, MO
• District of Columbia (DC)
• Kansas City, MO
• Los Angeles, CA (10+)
• Montgomery County, MD
• New York City, NY (Fair Chance Act 2.0)
• Philadelphia, PA (amended FCRSS eff. Jan 6, 2026 — 4-year misdemeanor lookback, 10-day response window, covers gig workers)
• Portland, OR (6+)
• Prince George's County, MD
• Rochester, NY
• San Francisco, CA (Fair Chance Ordinance)
• Seattle, WA (Fair Chance Employment Ordinance)
• Minneapolis, MN (Fair Chance ordinance)
• St. Louis, MO
• Spokane, WA
• U.S. Virgin Islands
• Waterloo, IA
• Westchester County, NY

Recent updates

Matrix last reviewed August 7, 2026.

• Washington Fair Chance Act amendments (E2SHB 1747, Laws of 2025) — the substantive obligations took effect July 1, 2026 for employers with 15 or more employees, and take effect January 1, 2027 for employers with fewer than 15. Criminal-history inquiries are deferred until after a conditional offer, a documented individualized assessment is required before adverse action, and the employer must provide the Washington Attorney General's Fair Chance Act Guide for Employers and Applicants in the circumstances the statute specifies. Arrests, juvenile adjudications, and non-conviction adult records are off-limits. AG penalties escalate to $500, $750, and $1,000 for first, second, and subsequent violations.
• Virginia Clean Slate (Va. Code §§19.2-392.13 to 19.2-392.16) — effective July 1, 2026. Automatic and petition-based sealing reaches many misdemeanors and certain lower-level felonies. §19.2-392.15 bars most employers from requiring disclosure of a sealed arrest, charge, or conviction, and §19.2-392.16 limits what a business screening service may disseminate. Sealed Virginia records are non-reportable.
• Texas HB 2466 — effective September 1, 2025, Texas's first statewide fair-chance statute. Public and private employers with 15+ employees must defer the criminal-history inquiry until the applicant is determined otherwise qualified, offered an interview, or extended a conditional offer. Independent contractors and gig workers are excluded; law enforcement, healthcare, childcare, and certain financial-services roles are carved out.
• Philadelphia Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards amendments (Bill 250373-A) — signed October 8, 2025, effective January 6, 2026. Coverage now reaches independent contractors, rideshare drivers, and other gig workers. The misdemeanor lookback drops from seven years to four (excluding incarceration), summary offenses are excluded entirely, any pre-check notice must state that consideration will be an individualized assessment, and a written pre-adverse notice with a ten-day response window is required.
• District of Columbia Second Chance Amendment Act (D.C. Law 24-284) — effective January 1, 2026. Automatic sealing and expungement phases in for decriminalized offenses (including pre-2015 marijuana convictions) and other eligible older records. Employers may not access or act on anything sealed under the Act, and criminal-history providers may not report it.
• New York financial-history inquiry ban — effective April 18, 2026. Employers and staffing firms may not request or use an applicant's or employee's consumer financial history in hiring, promotion, or compensation decisions absent a statutory exemption, extending New York City's rule statewide. Order a Financial Risk Search on a New York role only where a listed exemption is documented in the file.

How to comply with ban-the-box laws

Every hire inherits the Fair Chance rules of the candidate's work location and the employer's hiring location. The rule with the most candidate-protective timing wins. These six steps keep the sequence defensible.

1. Map every jurisdiction the requisition touches. List the work location, the candidate's residence, and the employer's hiring location. State and municipal ordinances stack, and the most candidate-protective timing controls.
2. Strip criminal-history questions from the application. Remove the box, and remove any 'clean record required' language from the job posting itself — New Jersey and several cities police the advertisement, not just the form.
3. Defer the inquiry to the lawful stage. Interview stage, post-interview, or post-conditional-offer, depending on the jurisdiction. Configure your ATS knock-out logic so the question cannot fire early.
4. Order the report only after the trigger point. Pair the order with the stand-alone FCRA disclosure and authorization, plus any state-specific notice such as California ICRAA or New York Article 23-A.
5. Run and document the individualized assessment. Weigh the offense, the time elapsed, and job-relatedness. Where §12952 or §23-A applies, put the analysis in writing and share it with the candidate.
6. Follow the extended notice sequence before rescinding. Send the pre-adverse notice with the report and Summary of Rights, honor the local response window, then send the final adverse action notice.

Ban-the-Box Compliance Checker

Use the free Ban-the-Box Compliance Checker below to generate a tailored Fair Chance hiring checklist for any U.S. state, county, or city. Enter the work location and position type — including any carve-outs such as patient contact, driving, or fiduciary access — and Ask HR AI returns inquiry-stage rules, required notices, individualized-assessment factors, a day-by-day timeline, and suggested application language edits.

Frequently asked questions