Criminal background checks are an important part of the hiring process for most companies. However, there are some limits to the information that these background checks can report under the law. One such example is the “7-Year Lookback Rule”, which limits the information that consumer reporting agencies can list on background checks.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) states that most types of negative information about a person must be removed from their consumer report or background check after a period of seven years.
The exceptions are Chapter 7 bankruptcies (which can remain on the report for ten years), criminal convictions, and bank liens (which are removed seven years after they are paid off instead of counting from their start date).
It is important to note that this element of the FCRA only applies to jobs that pay less than $75,000 per year.