What Employers See on Background Check

The Screening Companies Employers Actually Use

Most employers don't run background checks themselves. They hire Consumer Reporting Agencies — companies like Checkr, Sterling, HireRight, GoodHire, or First Advantage — that compile reports from multiple data sources. These CRAs are regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which means specific rules govern what they can report and how employers can use the information.

The type of check depends on the employer and the role. A retail position might trigger a basic county-level criminal search. A healthcare or financial services role could include fingerprint-based state repository checks, credit reports, professional license verification, and federal database searches.

What Typically Shows Up

Criminal history is the core of most employment background checks. CRAs search county courthouse records, state repositories, and national criminal databases. What appears varies by state law and the scope of the check:

• Felony and misdemeanor convictions
• Pending charges
• Arrests that didn't result in conviction (rules vary — California restricts employers' consideration of non-conviction records, and New York bars reporting certain non-criminal violations, infractions, and ACDs)
• Sex offender registry entries
• Federal criminal records

What often should not show up (depending on state law and the scope of the check): sealed or expunged records, juvenile records, arrests older than seven years without a conviction (where the FCRA limit applies), and non-criminal infractions like traffic tickets. Screening errors can still cause restricted or stale information to appear.

Additional checks some employers run:

• Employment and education verification
• Credit reports (common in financial services — subject to the FCRA's written-authorization requirement)
• Professional license verification
• Motor vehicle records
• Drug testing results

The Seven-Year Rule and State Restrictions

Under the FCRA, CRAs generally cannot report non-conviction arrests older than seven years. Several states go further:

• California (FEHA) restricts employers' consideration of non-conviction records, dismissed charges, and sealed convictions
• New York restricts employers' consideration of sealed records, and commercial screeners cannot report non-criminal violations, infractions, or ACDs (adjournments in contemplation of dismissal)
• Texas blocks reporting convictions older than seven years for positions paying under $75,000 annually

But here's the catch: these restrictions apply to the CRA's report; a direct courthouse search is a separate source with its own state and local rules. If an employer uses a CRA, the FCRA process still applies to that CRA-based report.

Your Rights Before They Decide

If an employer finds something concerning in a CRA report and is considering not hiring you, they can't just withdraw the offer. The FCRA requires a strict adverse action process:

1. Pre-adverse action notice — the employer must send you a copy of the background check report and a summary of your FCRA rights before making a final decision
2. Waiting period — you get at least five business days to review the report and dispute any inaccuracies with the CRA
3. Final adverse action notice — if the employer proceeds with the rejection, they must tell you which CRA produced the report and remind you of your right to get another free copy within 60 days

Employers who skip these steps face FCRA lawsuits. The FTC and CFPB have brought enforcement actions totaling millions in penalties against companies that violated the adverse action sequence.

Why You Should Know What's in Your File First

Approximately 80 million American adults carry some form of criminal history record. Commercial background screeners are known for "zombie records" — dismissed charges, sealed cases, and entries belonging to someone with a similar name that persist in outdated databases.

The safest move before any job search is to pull your own records first: your FBI Identity History Summary, your state repository report, and a file disclosure from the major CRAs you think an employer might use. That way, you're not blindsided by an error — you've already identified it and started the dispute process.

The Get Your Own Criminal Record toolkit walks through each of those layers and includes the dispute letter templates you'll need under FCRA Section 611.