A background check for employment in California can only go forward if the employer first gives you a standalone written disclosure and gets your signed permission, and once the report comes back, state law tightly limits what the employer can look at and how they can use it. Credit reports are off-limits for most jobs. Arrests without convictions, sealed records, and old marijuana convictions cannot be considered at all. Convictions cannot even be asked about until after a conditional job offer. And if an employer skips any of these steps, you can sue for statutory damages plus attorney fees.
Notice and Permission Before the Check
Two things have to happen before an employer can pull a report through a third-party screening company: a written disclosure and your written authorization. The disclosure has to stand on its own as a separate document. It cannot be folded into a job application or bundled with liability waivers.1Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees: Keep Required Disclosures Simple You then sign an authorization giving the employer permission to order the check. Without your signature, the employer has no legal basis to request it. This covers every type of third-party report, whether it looks at criminal records, credit history, employment verification, or driving records.
California adds an extra step for what the law calls an investigative consumer report. That’s a report built from interviews with people who know you, touching on your character, reputation, or lifestyle. Before ordering one, the employer must give you a standalone notice that names the screening agency, states the purpose of the report, and tells you that you can request a written summary of the investigation’s nature and scope. You can also request a copy of the completed report, which the screening company has to send within three business days of delivering it to the employer.2California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 1786.18
Credit Reports Are Off-Limits for Most Jobs
Most California employers cannot pull your credit report. Labor Code 1024.5 bars using a consumer credit report for employment unless the position falls into a narrow list of exceptions.3California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1024.5 The permitted categories are:
- Managerial positions meeting the executive exemption under California wage orders
- Sworn peace officer and Department of Justice positions
- Jobs where you would be a signatory on company bank accounts, authorized to transfer money, or authorized to enter financial contracts for the employer
- Jobs with regular access to $10,000 or more in cash during the workday
- Jobs with regular access to bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth
- Positions with access to confidential proprietary information with independent economic value
- Positions where a specific law requires credit information
Financial institutions subject to Gramm-Leach-Bliley oversight are exempt from these restrictions. Outside those categories, running a credit check on a retail worker, an administrative assistant, or a similar role violates state law.
The Seven-Year Lookback Limit
California caps how far back most negative information can go. A consumer reporting agency cannot include criminal records, whether arrests, convictions, or misdemeanor complaints, that are more than seven years old, measured from the date of disposition, release, or parole. The same seven-year ceiling applies to collection accounts, civil judgments, and paid tax liens. Bankruptcies get a ten-year window. If the reporting agency learns that an arrest never led to a conviction, or that a conviction received a full pardon, the record must be removed regardless of age.2California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 1786.18
For employment screening, the seven-year cap holds no matter what the job pays. That is stronger than federal law, which allows older records for higher-paying positions.
Records Employers Cannot Look At or Use
Some categories of records are legally invisible to employers, even if they somehow surface in a report. Labor Code 432.7 prohibits employers from asking about or relying on:
- Any record of an arrest or detention that did not lead to a conviction
- Any record of referral to or completion of a pretrial or post-trial diversion program
- Convictions that have been judicially dismissed, sealed, expunged, or for which the person received a certificate of rehabilitation
These bans apply to every California employer, public or private. The employer cannot ask on an application, in an interview, or through a screening vendor.4California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 432.7
Labor Code 432.8 adds a similar protection for old marijuana possession: an employer cannot ask about or use a non-felony marijuana conviction that is more than two years old.5California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 432.8 Since January 2024, California also prohibits discrimination based on off-duty marijuana use, though that protection does not cover building and construction trades or positions requiring federal security clearances.
Narrow exceptions to the records ban exist for sworn law enforcement positions, jobs requiring you to carry a firearm, and positions where a specific law requires a criminal history check.6Civil Rights Department. California Code of Regulations Title 2 11017.1 – Consideration of Criminal History in Employment Decisions
When Employers Can Consider Convictions
California’s Fair Chance Act, the state’s Ban the Box law, controls how employers with five or more employees handle conviction history. The core rule is timing: no covered employer can ask about convictions on an application or at any point before making a conditional offer of employment.7California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12952 The employer first has to decide you are qualified based on skills and experience. Only after the conditional offer can they run a conviction check.
If the employer wants to rescind the offer because of what they find, they cannot just reject you. They have to run an individualized assessment that weighs three things: the nature and gravity of the offense, how much time has passed since the offense or the end of any sentence, and the specific duties of the job. The assessment must show a direct and adverse relationship between the conviction and those duties. A vague sense that someone with a record is risky is not enough. An old theft conviction might matter for a cash-handling role, for example, but not for a warehouse job with no financial access.
The employer also has to consider any evidence of rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances you provide. Completion of education programs, steady employment since the conviction, community involvement, and letters of reference can all weigh in your favor.
The Fair Chance Act does not cover every job. It exempts positions at criminal justice agencies, farm labor contractor positions, and any job where a state, federal, or local law specifically requires a conviction history check or restricts employment based on criminal history. That last category sweeps in a range of regulated roles, including financial services positions covered by self-regulatory organizations under the Securities Exchange Act.
How to Challenge a Denial Based on Your Background Check
An employer who decides to deny you based on a background check cannot just send a rejection letter. State and federal law require a two-step notice process built to give you a real chance to respond.
The Pre-Adverse Action Notice
The employer first sends a preliminary notice saying they are considering a negative decision. That notice has to include a copy of the background report and a summary of your rights. You get at least five business days under the Fair Chance Act to respond. If you tell the employer in writing during that window that you dispute the accuracy of the conviction history and are gathering evidence, you get another five business days on top of the first five. The employer cannot make the decision final until the response period runs out.7California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12952
Use that window. If the record is wrong, dispute it in writing with the screening agency and tell the employer you are doing so. If the record is accurate but incomplete, this is when to submit rehabilitation evidence and mitigating context. If your response shows the original information was wrong, or your mitigating evidence tips the balance, the employer must reverse the preliminary decision. Skipping the reassessment or treating it as a formality is itself a violation.
The Final Adverse Action Notice
If the employer proceeds with the denial, they have to send a final notice. It must include the name and contact information of the screening agency that produced the report, along with a statement that the agency did not make the hiring decision and cannot explain it. The notice also has to tell you about your right to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.8California Civil Rights Department. Fair Chance Act – Guidance for California Employers and Job Applicants
Your Personal Social Media Stays Yours
California employers cannot demand access to your personal social media accounts. Under Labor Code 980, an employer cannot require or even ask you to hand over a username or password for personal social media, pull up your accounts while they watch, or share content that is not publicly available. This applies to both applicants and current employees. It covers personal accounts only, so an employer can still manage accounts you use on the employer’s behalf. Publicly visible posts remain fair game.
What Employers Owe You When They Break the Rules
California gives you tools to enforce these rules, and the numbers matter.
For violations of the records ban in Labor Code 432.7, you can sue for the greater of your actual damages or $200, plus attorney fees and court costs. Intentional violations trigger triple actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, plus attorney fees, and are also a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500.4California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 432.7
For violations of California’s Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act, a screening agency or employer that fails to follow the investigative-report rules is liable for the greater of your actual damages or $10,000 per violation, a substantially higher floor than federal law. Attorney fees are recoverable, and courts can add punitive damages for willful or grossly negligent conduct.9California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1786.50
Federal law adds another layer. An employer that willfully violates the FCRA owes you between $100 and $1,000 in statutory damages per violation even without proof of actual harm, plus any actual damages you can show. Courts can add punitive damages, and a successful plaintiff recovers attorney fees.10GovInfo. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance Because the fee provision means lawyers can take these cases without upfront cost to you, even relatively small violations tend to generate lawsuits.