http://www.laborradio.org/node/14016Submitted by Doug Cunningham on August 12, 2010 - 4:06pm
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Illinois job seekers who have been burdened with bad credit due to a sour economy now have protections from credit score discrimination. Jesse Russell reports:
This week Illinois became the fourth state to ban potential employers from running credit checks on applicants. Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington have all signed such legislation into law which is intended to protect consumers from being discriminated against when they seek jobs due to having bad credit. Governor Pat Quinn:
: “We cannot allow folks who are doing their level best to be discriminated against with respect to getting a job or keeping a job. And unfortunately some employers are using credit score of an individual person
to decide whether someone gets hired or someone gets retained on a job or someone gets a promotion on that job."
The new law does allow employers to run credit checks if the employee is seeking a position that may bear financial responsibility. A number of other states including Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Maryland are considering similar legislation.