WHY DOES YOUR APPLICANT’S SALARY MATTER?

Have you ever noticed the field for “Expected Salary” on the order entry form? Depending on your company’s permissible purpose and the location of your company or where your applicant resides, this information could affect what criminal records you do or do not see on a completed report. Therefore, the role of applicant salary in background searches amplifies.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs Consumer reporting agencies (CRAs). As a CRA, One Source must follow the federal law when it comes to consumer reports. However, some state laws preempt the FCRA and those specific state laws must be followed in addition to the federal law.

For example, if employment purposes represent your company’s permissible purpose and your applicant lives and/or works in Kansas and makes under $20,000.00 annually, One Source would only report 7 years of criminal history. If your company’s permissible purpose is employment purposes and your applicant lives and/or works in Kansas and makes over $20,000.00 annually, there would be no restriction on how many years of criminal history could be reported – assuming there are no other state laws to follow.

To give another example, if employment purposes represent your company’s permissible purpose and your applicant lives and/or works in California, no criminal history records over 7 years can be reported – regardless of how much the applicant makes annually.

While some states may just have a salary cap, some states may have a salary cap AND restrictions on non-conviction reporting.

Please contact One Source if you have additional questions regarding specific states or specific permissible purposes.

Disclaimer: Many states and jurisdictions enact bans on requesting information about an applicant’s previous salary. Previous Salary differs from Expected Salary. For enhanced compliance, One Source removed the field for Previous Salary from our a la carte employment verification products unless specifically requested and permitted by law.