Topics and Issues

Background checks (71) Ban-the-Box (12)

A paper from Evan K. Rose (U.C. Berkley) was published in the University of Chicago’s Journal of Labor Economics in 2021, Does Banning the Box Help Ex-Offenders Get Jobs? Evaluating the Effects of a Prominent Example, said that despite Seattle’s attempt in 2013 to “ban-the-box” to make it easier for job applicants with criminal histories to obtain employment, the law “had negligible impacts on ex-offenders’ labor market outcomes. The results are consistent with employers deferring background checks until later in the interview process or ex-offenders applying only to jobs where clean records are not required, a pattern supported by survey evidence.”