# Am I Required to Show a Potential Employee their Background Check? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467 "2019-07-03T19:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/1 "2019-07-03T19:16:02Z")
I’m in the process of hiring an assistant for my office. We’ve made them a job offer pending them successfully passing a drug screen and a background check. They say they’ll pass the drug screen and I don’t doubt it, but there are gaps in their employment history that could be anything so I want to see that background check. When I got the signed authorization to perform the background check back from them, they added a line stating that they wanted a hard copy of any background check performed by us and they initialed it. Now my company pays a good deal of money to a private company for those background checks and I just don’t see why I should give them a copy of it for free. It makes me think that maybe this is a sign that they are a ‘bad fit’ … and that maybe I should just rescind the job offer and hire the next person on the stack of applicants. This person says that they feel that they are entitled to a copy by law. In all the years that we have been in operation (nearly 50) we have never been asked for this and have never ever provided this to any new employee. Is this true…? Are we required to provide them with a written copy of that background check? (Any / all links to the law re: this and the various states would be greatly appreciated. ) ---
**Author:** ![ToughLife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@ToughLife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToughLife)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/2 "2019-07-03T19:28:00Z")
Your PC use of “they” is making it difficult to parse your post. This _person_ says is PC enough. Just saying ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/3 "2019-07-03T19:38:50Z")
They don’t get to add lines to your form, initialed or not. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/4 "2019-07-03T19:39:43Z")
IANAL; [the EEOC website](https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/background_checks_employers.cfm) says: > [@](#): > > In addition, when you run background checks through a company in the business of compiling background information, you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). and > [@](#): > > If you are asking a company to provide an “investigative report” - a report based on personal interviews concerning a person’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics, and lifestyle - **you must also tell the applicant or employee of his or her right to a description of the nature and scope of the investigation**. Does the bolded part cover it? I saw somewhere that employers can require applicants/employees to pay for the background check, perhaps that also comes with the notion that they “own” the results? Or perhaps it’s covered in the FCRA? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/5 "2019-07-03T19:43:19Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Does the bolded part cover it? That says you have to tell them what the report will be covering, not what the results are. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/6 "2019-07-03T19:44:41Z")
You’re paying the money whether you give them a copy or not, so why not? It’s not going to cost you any more. In some states, if you reject an applicant based on a background check, I think you do have to provide it, or at least the part that caused the rejection. The information might be wrong. The prospective employee should at least know what it is, in case it is wrong (mistaken identity) or misleading. Also, under some circumstances, employees are entitled to their employment file. Is this going to be part of the employment file? ---
**Author:** ![Emergency911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@Emergency911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emergency911)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/7 "2019-07-03T19:52:23Z")
I don’t know the legality of whether or not you have to show them the background, but we always talk to them if something comes back on their background check. I had one applicant who discovered that their best friend had used her information on an arrest. She was able to figure it out because that same friend called her to pick her up from jail after she bonded. I gave her 30 days to clear it up. She came back in two weeks with a letter from the courts explaining the situation, we ran her again and she was clean. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/8 "2019-07-03T19:55:35Z")
> [@ToughLife](#): > > Your PC use of “they” is making it difficult to parse your post. > This _person_ says is PC enough. > Just saying **Moderator Note** 1. [Singular they/them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they) has been used in English for at least 500 years, and is common in colloquial speech. There is absolutely nothing “difficult to parse” about the OP. This is not a PC issue. 2. Even if it were, we are not interested in your personal opinion about it in GQ, especially as a first response. 3. Do not do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/9 "2019-07-03T19:59:15Z")
If you take adverse action (such as not hiring the person) based on the results of their report, then yes, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are required to provide them a copy of the report, the contact information for the agency, and a notice of their legal rights (such as right to dispute the accuracy). See [here](http://www.amof.info/fcra.htm) or [here](https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/background_checks_employers.cfm). The company from which you are buying the report should provide you copies of the relevant notices you are required to provide the applicant. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/10 "2019-07-03T19:59:58Z")
**[Moderating]** > [@ToughLife](#): > > Your PC use of “they” is making it difficult to parse your post. > This _person_ says is PC enough. > Just saying **ToughLife** , while it’s possible that the OP was somehow using “they” in an effort to be polite, it’s much more reasonable to assume that they were doing so in order to be clearer. Which it accomplishes. If you’re so upset about the possibility that someone might be trying to polite that you invent instances of people being (in your opinion) too polite, then that’s your problem, not theirs. ---
**Author:** ![ToughLife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@ToughLife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToughLife)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/11 "2019-07-03T20:36:10Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **Moderator Note** > > …especially as a first response… > > Colibri > General Questions Moderator OK, I should’ve waited more but from your link > [@](#): > > On the other hand, when the pronoun they was used to refer to known individuals (“referential antecedents, for which the gender was presumably known”, e.g. my nurse, that truck driver, a runner I knew), reading was slowed when compared with use of a gendered pronoun consistent with the “stereotypic gender” (e.g. he for a specific truck driver). that’s what I meant by difficult to parse. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/12 "2019-07-03T21:06:05Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > I’m in the process of hiring an assistant for my office. We’ve made them a job offer pending them successfully passing a drug screen and a background check. They say they’ll pass the drug screen and I don’t doubt it, but there are gaps in their employment history that could be anything so I want to see that background check. > > When I got the signed authorization to perform the background check back from them, they added a line stating that they wanted a hard copy of any background check performed by us and they initialed it. > > Now my company pays a good deal of money to a private company for those background checks and I just don’t see why I should give them a copy of it for free. It makes me think that maybe this is a sign that they are a ‘bad fit’ … and that maybe I should just rescind the job offer and hire the next person on the stack of applicants. > > This person says that they feel that they are entitled to a copy by law. In all the years that we have been in operation (nearly 50) we have never been asked for this and have never ever provided this to any new employee. > > Is this true…? Are we required to provide them with a written copy of that background check? > > (Any / all links to the law re: this and the various states would be greatly appreciated. ) Did you ask the applicant where they got the idea they had that right? Is the job a ‘bad fit’ for a critical thinker? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/13 "2019-07-03T21:21:57Z")
Whatever you do, tread carefully and document everything. This person sounds like a prime candidate to sue you if you don’t hire them. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/14 "2019-07-03T21:40:46Z")
Personally, I’d probably ask them where they heard that and if they could tell me where I could look it up. If there’s any pushback (ie ‘I don’t know, that’s your job’ etc), I’d ask them to show me the relevant law. Who knows, maybe they’re right, but IME people toss plenty of untrue things around as if they’re law. I remember, years ago, I was telling an employee about our break policy (30 minutes for 8 hours, 15 minutes for 4 hours) and was told, rudely, ‘you HAVE to give us a break, it’s the law’. To which I replied that you ARE getting a break (so why the attitude) and they are NOT required by law in WI. I think I may have tossed in a ‘don’t quote the law to me if you don’t know it’. I could reply quickly, and correctly, because I’ve read the relevant labor laws. > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Whatever you do, tread carefully and document everything. This person sounds like a prime candidate to sue you if you don’t hire them. I know very little about lawsuits involving not hiring an applicant. It doesn’t come up in my job, like, ever. But what grounds would they have? It seems like the employer could simply say that the applicant altered pre-employment/onboarding paperwork and they no longer feel that this person will work out as well as hoped…or something like that. Now, if they are legally entitled to it, that’s different, but assuming they’re not, I’d move on to the next person. If you have a stack of applications, it’s a buyer’s market, so to speak. Why take on the person that’s giving you trouble before you’ve even hired them. ETA, my comment about asking them to cite the law is what I would have done if they were still there in front of me. At this point, I’d thank them for their time and tell them you’re not going to hire them. No point in going tit for tat. Especially if they are the lawsuit type. Everything you say to them can become ammo. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/15 "2019-07-03T21:44:35Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I know very little about lawsuits involving not hiring an applicant. It doesn’t come up in my job, like, ever. But what grounds would they have? They could claim grounds like gender/age/race discrimination. My concern isn’t that they’ll win, mind you, but that they’ll tie up your legal team. IANAL nor an HR person. Just throwing out words of caution as they seem apropos. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/16 "2019-07-03T22:20:18Z")
IANAL, but it seems to me that the hiring company has a good reason to keep the contents of the background check confidential, since hiring can be competitive and exactly what is reviewed for a typical background check can be used by both competitors and by to help other potential employees “game the system” by knowing what is going to be investigated. On the other hand, it seems fair that if an applicant was denied employment because of information contained in a background check, that that person be notified of that information so, if it is untrue, they can address it. Not the whole report, but the damaging information at least. The OP needs to consult either whoever is in charge of HR for the company, or an attorney who specializes in employment law in their state. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/17 "2019-07-03T22:28:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Now, if they are legally entitled to it, that’s different, but assuming they’re not, I’d move on to the next person. If you have a stack of applications, it’s a buyer’s market, so to speak. Why take on the person that’s giving you trouble before you’ve even hired them. They are legally entitled to the results of a background check if 1) the employer used a third-party service, and 2) the employer took an adverse action based on that report. This is federal law in the United States based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act; some states have additional protections. Failing to follow federal law is asking for a complaint to be filed with the EEOC and/or a lawsuit, requesting statutory and/or compensatory damages. There’s a pretty good discussion of the relevant laws in the 7th Circuit’s 2018 decision in [Robertson v. Allied Solutions](https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca7/17-3196/17-3196-2018-08-29.pdf?ts=1535576416). > [@Joey\_P](#): > > ETA, my comment about asking them to cite the law is what I would have done if they were still there in front of me. At this point, I’d thank them for their time and tell them you’re not going to hire them. No point in going tit for tat. Especially if they are the lawsuit type. Everything you say to them can become ammo. If they are a lawsuit type, advising that OP shouldn’t hire them solely because they gave notice that they intend to assert federally-protected rights (whether or not they are able to cite the exact law or circumstances) is probably not great advice. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/18 "2019-07-04T00:03:01Z")
If I had valuable information about an employee, I’d give it to the employee just to be nice. If I had valuable information about why I wasn’t hiring a person, I’d give it to them to explain why I wasn’t hiring. I’ve been burned with false information a couple of times. I’d lean towards sharing it around with the relevant people, to give everyone a chance to see what mistakes have been made. BUT. I would be very carefull about sharing the text of private opinions given confidentially by other people. I’m willing to share that we got opinions from people, but not the text of those opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/19 "2019-07-04T00:19:26Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > They are legally entitled to the results of a background check if 1) the employer used a third-party service, and 2) the employer took an adverse action based on that report. This is federal law in the United States based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act; some states have additional protections. More than that, if my reading of your links is correct. The [eeoc.gov](http://eeoc.gov) link says: > [@](#): > > Before you take an adverse employment action, you must give the applicant or employee: > [ul] > [li]a notice that includes a copy of the consumer report you relied on to make your decision[/li][/ul] The applicant isn’t just _entitled_ to the report. Instead, the employer is legally obligated to provide a copy of the report before taking any adverse action. I wonder if the OP’s employer has been breaking the law for some time. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467/20 "2019-07-04T00:44:09Z")
Frankly I find this thread a little insane. I’ve never had a job where a background check was required, but I would absolutely expect a copy of the report. It’s my background. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-show-a-potential-employee-their-background-check/836467.md?page=2)