- Oct 25, 2005
- 1,210
- 23
The Credit Check Becomes a Civil Rights Issue
Ms. Lisa Bailey's intentions can be summed up as follows.
THIS IS EVERYDAY STUFF our people have to GO THROUGH.
And we are LOSING MONEY everyday too. TO RACISM.
Checking Job Candidates’ Credit Fuels Rights Concern
Checking Job Candidates’ Credit Fuels Rights Concern
Is an employer violating a job applicant’s civil rights by checking his or her credit?
Businesses say they need to check credit histories. A bad credit rating might indicate whether a prospective hire who will be handling money might steal it, they contend. U.S. law requires companies to get permission from applicants to run credit checks and give applicants a chance to respond.
But that might lead to inadvertent racial discrimination: ...2004 study by the Texas Department of Insurance that found that, on average, blacks’ credit scores were 10%-35% worse and Hispanics’ credit scores 5%-25% worse than those of whites. At the same time, there is no established link between bad credit and a tendency to theft. In 2003, Jerry Palmer and Laura Koppes at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond in 2003 found no correlation between employee credit reports and negative performance or termination for dishonesty. Officials at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission say there is anecdotal evidence that discrimination complaints citing credit checks are on the rise.
Lisa Bailey is suing Harvard University for denying her a job after running a credit check. Ms. Bailey, who is black, says Harvard should have used her criminal record as a guide to her honesty: “I was a cashier for many years and I’ve never been rich and I’ve never stolen money.” But some human-resources specialists say the practice is crucial to vetting job candidates: “If Harvard hired a person and did not use a credit report and the person embezzled, what would the headline be?” asks Lester Rosen, president of background-screening firm Employment Screening Resources. . – Robin Moroney Wall Street Journal
Ms. Lisa Bailey's intentions can be summed up as follows.
As for Bailey, she still wants the Harvard job, and says there would be "no hard feelings." But first she wants to change the system for herself and others. "I hope I win. It might be beneficial to other people, too," she says.
THIS IS EVERYDAY STUFF our people have to GO THROUGH.
Settlement OK'd in Allstate bias case
SAN ANTONIO -- A federal judge has given final approval to a class-action settlement in a case accus*ing Allstate Corp. of discriminat*ing against minority policyholders by using credit reports to set rates.
...
Jose DeHoyos, the San Antonio man who served as the lead plain*tiff in the lawsuit filed in 2001, had his premium jump 31 percent in a year even though he and his wife had made only one claim during 20 years as Allstate customers.
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The DeHoyos-led lawsuit chal*lenged Allstate's use of credit scor*ing to determine rates set for poli*cyholders, arguing the formula acted as a kind of redlining for mi*norities and forced Hispanic and black customers to pay more.
And we are LOSING MONEY everyday too. TO RACISM.