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Mykle Ykle

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Should employers not hire you or fire you when they discover your bad credit history?

It has been a sad situation for me and many others in the USA (I don't know if this is an issue worldwide) I have great qualifications and work experience. Yet, in the majority of states you are obligated to submit to a criminal background check which is completely understandable, but that also includes a credit check. I understand that a credit check should be mandatory for executive, banking, casinos and industries directly involving money. Sadly, those of us with bad credit are being discriminated for regular jobs i.e. retail, call centers, customer service.

The government, banks and debt collectors wants their money, as they should. Yet, if you have bad credit, it's a lot harder to find a job making it impossible to get out of debt, let alone be a productive citizen.

This is an issue that is not widely discussed, I've searched online and there are some bills being proposed to end this discrimination but I don't think is really going anywhere.

I would like to have the TED community input in the most civil way possible.

Topics: Equal Rights Human Resource Unemployment credit credit checks credit reports economy eoe equal opportunity employer
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  • Conor Corrigan

    • 0
    Feb 22 2013: Credit history (or lack thereof) directly correlates with successful time, financial, and resource management experience. There are exceptions, but in general, this is true.

    If you accept the above, then clearly it makes sense to take credit history into consideration when hiring.

    Obviously, not everyone will accept the above as true (although it is proven).

    It is the employer who is investing time, money and resources in other persons. The employer is taking ALL of the risk... The employer owes nothing to the applicant, but owes a great deal to employees... Prior to making the investment (making an applicant an employee) the Employer ought to be able to make these judgments with all available resources.
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      Mykle Ykle

      • 0
      Feb 23 2013: like you said, not everyone will accept the above, but you also cannot assume that it's a 100% proven. It also has to be taken into consideration personal life situations that for some reason were not manageable. Many elements have to be considered for these "proven" studies to apply. It will most likely apply to people with lesser opportunities being how they were raised, their environment, family support for success, education etc, which will relate more to bad or poor time, financial and resource management. I also believe the employer has to consider the best employee possible, but we fall back on the fact that if this was the only or most important criteria, people with bad credit should not even bother to apply. There has to be a common ground.

    • Marc J

      • +1
      Feb 23 2013: Cite an academic, or other trustworthy, source for the statement, "it is proven." Without such citation, your statement is mere speculation on your part and your opinion, which adds no substantive relevance to the topic.

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