[...]
In 2012, 47 percent of employers used credit checks for screening candidates, according to a study from the Society for Human Resource Management. “As a researcher, I’d like to think that if about half of all employers are doing this, they must have some real evidence that it’s valuable,” Amy Traub, a senior analyst at policy group Demos told the New York Times two years ago. “But in this case that evidence is really lacking.” Traub is the author of “Discredited: How Employment Credit Checks Keep Qualified Workers Out of a Job,” a paper that outlines, among other things, how often bad credit is the result of medical problems, the high frequency of errors in credit reporting, and how the issue disproportionately impacts people of color. Today, the NYT writes that supporters of the bill claim the current NYC legislation will “help end discrimination against minority job applicants, who are often the victims of predatory lending that can lead to poor credit.”
[...]
