St. Louis, Missouri, passed a ban the box Ordinance, effective Jan. 1, 2021, that will prevent employers with 10 or more employees from basing a decision to hire or promote on an applicant’s criminal history. In addition, the ordinance prevents employers from: inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal history until after the employer has determined that the applicant is otherwise qualified for the job position and has interviewed the applicant, publishing job advertisements that exclude applicants on the basis of criminal history, including statements on job applications that exclude applicants on the basis of criminal history, inquiring into criminal history on initial job applications and other hiring forms and “seek[ing] to obtain publicly available information” concerning job applicants’ criminal history. Ban the box laws have also been amended in California where, among other changes, it expands the definition of an “applicant” to include individuals who begin work upon receiving a conditional offer of employment but before the employer has conducted or completed a criminal background check, and in Hawaii, where most private sector employers are prohibited from considering felony convictions older than seven years and misdemeanor convictions older than five years.
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