TRENTON — A bill to ban businesses from conducting credit checks on most current or prospective employees cleared a legislative hurdle today. The bill — a combination of measures by state Sens. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Nia Gill (D-Essex), had stalled six months ago. But it advanced in the Senate Labor Committee today by a party-line vote of 4-2,...
A March 2010 file photo of the Assembly Chamber.TRENTON — A bill to ban businesses from conducting credit checks on most current or prospective employees cleared a legislative hurdle today.
The bill — a combination of measures by state Sens. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Nia Gill (D-Essex), had stalled six months ago. But it advanced in the Senate Labor Committee today by a party-line vote of 4-2, and will now be considered by the full Senate.
Turner said allowing credit checks on potential employees creates a "Catch 22" for residents hit hard by the recession.
"Everybody knows if you don’t work, you can’t pay your bills. And of course if you can’t pay your bills, you become delinquent," she said. "We have found that more and more employers now are using the credit history report as a way to weed out job applicants because they have so many more applicants than they have jobs available."
The bill does include exceptions. Employers could conduct credit checks for jobs that involve handling large amounts of money; setting the financial direction of a company; managing expense accounts or accessing customer’s personal belongings or financial information.
Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris), a dentist, said bad credit wouldn’t make him less likely to hire someone. "There are instances where if somebody has gone through a foreclosure or tough time, they would be a better candidate for the job because they’re hungrier and you know they will stay because they’ve just gone through a financial tragedy," he said.
New Jersey Retail Merchants Association President John Holub said the checks do not reveal credit scores, and instead are meant to find major problems like tax liens and foreclosures.
"If you’re doing a criminal background check, you’re not looking for the parking tickets," he said.
Michael Egenton, a vice president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said the Garden State would be the only one in the region to have the ban, discouraging businesses from moving here. Egenton questioned the reasoning behind the bill.
"Quite honestly, we haven’t heard this is a problem or crisis or is actually being abused," he said.