David Steves, February 23, 2010
SALEM — Most Oregon employers will soon be prohibited from using credit histories to screen out potential hires, following the Legislature’s final approval Monday of a ban on the practice.
The House’s 33-26 vote sends its bill to the governor for his expected signature. The ban would take effect July 1.
More than half of all U.S. employers rely on credit histories to determine which job applicants to hire. But the practice has come under fire as hundreds of thousands of people have lost work and are hampered in their job search by poor credit histories.
The House debate over Senate Bill 1045 underscored tension between employers who want the freedom to vet potential workers as they see fit and the demands of workers for the right to keep their personal financial history from influencing hiring decisions.
Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, said she recently discussed the proposal with some constituents, all of whom viewed the issue identically: “What they said is, in the worst economic recession since the Depression, it is absolutely unfair to discriminate against someone because they’ve had a hard time.”