Austin’s fair chance hiring ordinance—which prohibits most private employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history before extending a job offer—went into effect April 4, and area businesses are giving mixed feedback about putting the policy into practice.

Austin is the first city in the southern United States to adopt a fair chance hiring policy that applies to private employers, according to data from the National Employment Law Project. The new ordinance only applies to businesses with 15 or more employees and does not apply to positions for which a prior local, state or federal law disqualifies candidates with a criminal history.

Twenty-one states and more than 100 cities and counties have approved fair chance hiring— sometimes called “ban the box,” which refers to the removal of the criminal history question on job applications—for the public sector, and about 14 percent of those policies also apply to private businesses.

Many Austin employers will be required to remove the criminal history question and accompanying check box from job applications following City Council’s March 24 vote. However, there are some businesses to which the new policy does not apply.[/caption]

Several dozen Austin residents and business owners testified before City Council both in favor of and against the fair chance hiring policy March 24. Many speakers who claimed they have a criminal record said they were unable to obtain jobs when employers required criminal history upfront—even when their convictions were unrelated to the position in question.

Resident James Atkins said he was unable to find employment for years after a marijuana possession conviction for which he served no prison time, even though his experience and qualifications had previously earned him a position managing teams of 40 to 60 people and negotiating multimillion-dollar deals. The fair chance hiring ordinance means he and many other Austin residents will now have a better chance at securing employment, Atkins said.

“I could not get a job—I couldn’t,” he said. “This [new policy] means a chance to prove my merit. This means the chance to show what I’ve done and what I’m capable yet of doing.”

Austin businesses have one year to adopt the fair chance hiring policy, after which employers found in violation will receive a warning for a first-time offense and a fine of up to $500 for subsequent offenses.

For some businesses, implementing the new policy may not be simple or cost-effective, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Jose Carrillo said.

“We don’t feel that it’s good business to have the background check when you make somebody a job offer, which is toward the end of the [hiring] process, because there are costs involved,” Carrillo said.

Some states with “ban the box” policies allow criminal background checks to be run after the first interview or at another point in the hiring process. Austin is now one of about 50 cities and states that require background checks to be delayed until after a conditional offer is made or finalists are selected.

Pamela Bratton, vice president of staffing firm Meador Staffing Services, voiced concerns March 24 about how the new policy would impact temporary staffing firms like hers, which need to provide employees at a moment’s notice and could lose time, money or clients if a background check is postponed until the end of the hiring process. City Council then made an exception to the policy for temporary staffing firms that allows them to run background checks before placing applicants in a pool of job candidates.   

District 4 Council Member Greg Casar said the passage of the fair chance hiring ordinance is a significant step for Austin that shows the city’s commitment to social justice. Casar proposed the policy last year and led efforts to refine the policy based on stakeholder feedback. Austin passed a “ban the box” policy for city job applicants in 2008.