Illinois Enacts New Law Governing Employer’s Use of Credit History
On August 10, 2010, Illinois enacted H.B. 4658, the Employee Credit Privacy Act, which governs the use of credit information for employment purposes. The new law makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to:
- Fail to hire or recruit, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against an individual because of the individual’s credit history;
- Inquire about an applicant’s or employee’s credit history; or
- Obtain an applicant’s or employee’s credit report from a consumer reporting agency.
Illinois’s law will go into effect on January 1, 2011, making it the fourth state to restrict employer’s use of an individual’s credit history for hiring decisions (Oregon enacted a law earlier this year, and Hawaii and Washington had previously enacted similar laws in 2009 and 2007 respectively).