A new bill could help millions of New Yorkers find work. Here’s what employers should know

In June, New York State lawmakers passed a bill that is poised to change the lives of millions of residents—and, in turn, encourage employers seeking a more diverse workforce to reevaluate their hiring practices. Dubbed the Clean Slate Act, this type of reform has found traction in recent years, both in and out of the state, and will seal criminal records for people who have not faced another conviction for a set period of time (three years for misdemeanors and eight years for felony charges). 

It’s a move aimed to address the significant barriers that persist for around 80 million Americans who have some kind of record, which can impact everything from employment opportunities to housing. “When you commit an infraction, you actually lose all your civil liberties in this country,” says Ken Oliver, who leads Checkr.org, the philanthropic arm of nationwide background-check company Checkr. “It doesn’t even require someone actually going to prison—there are several laws where you can be convicted of a felony and never serve a day in jail. But that record will prohibit you from accessing many things in the everyday economy.” People with a record are more likely to be screened out of an applicant pool due to employment gaps, for example, or could be denied housing by a landlord for a conviction that happened decades prior.

The passage of the Clean Slate Act is also an opportunity for employers who are not only searching for new talent but also looking to hire in a way that reflects their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Over the past two decades, there have been a number of attempts to mitigate discriminatory employment practices that target people with a record. Fair chance initiatives across more than 37 states have curtailed questions about a job applicant’s record and delayed background checks to make the hiring process more equitable. As advocates—and even business lobbying groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—have emphasized the economic case for addressing these barriers to employment, the corporate world has also rallied to support policy changes like the Clean Slate Act. In New York State, companies like Microsoft, Verizon, and JPMorgan Chase have been among the most vocal supporters of the bill. 

“If we’re prohibiting people from accessing work, or we’re requiring them to have this scarlet letter that kind of marks them,” Oliver says, “then we’re taking a big swath of people and exiling them from the economy.” According to a report conducted by the New York City comptroller’s office, the Clean Slate Act could automatically seal the records of half a million people in New York City alone—nearly 80% of whom are Black or Latino—and yield an additional $2.4 billion in annual wages. (More than 2.3 million New Yorkers have a conviction record, but not all of them would be eligible to immediately have their records sealed.)

Even as legislation like the Clean Slate Act takes aim at this issue, Oliver argues that changing the narrative around hiring people with records is still crucial, especially given the disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities. Despite labor shortages, plenty of businesses are still resistant to the idea of hiring employees who have been “justice-impacted,” as Oliver describes it. While the Clean Slate Act addresses the issue of having a record that follows you for years, it doesn’t necessarily erase the stigma associated with a record—which can lead employers to make assumptions about certain applicants on the basis of, say, race or ethnicity.

That’s why organizations like Checkr.org are not only advocating for Clean Slate laws around the country, but also working to help companies understand why they should still hire someone who can’t get their record sealed or has a major employment gap due to incarceration. “There’s a big ROI when you hire people who have been justice-impacted,” Oliver says, “because in many cases, they finally have been given a shot to reclaim their life, to be part of a corporate environment, and to also earn access to livable wage and economic mobility, which is key for people to stay out of the streets.” A key part of their approach is to reframe this as a DEI issue. “Fair chance hiring is really part of a DEI practice because you can’t have inclusion [and] you can’t have equity, if you’re excluding people based on the basis of a record,” Oliver says. “There’s too many of us.”

Advocates expect that the Clean Slate Act will be signed into law; Governor Kathy Hochul has expressed her support for the bill, and several states—even those that are less progressive, like Utah—have already enacted similar legislation. (This is one of nearly 900 bills that Hochul is reviewing over the next six months, and it’s still possible she could request changes to it before signing off.) The bill also fits into a larger trend of erasing criminal records: As cannabis has been legalized in more and more states, it has become common to expunge or seal marijuana-related offenses. At the federal level, Congress has introduced a Clean Slate bill that would automatically seal records with low-level federal marijuana offenses and create a petition process for people seeking to clear certain convictions. 

Still, as impactful as this legislation can be, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. For every person who is eligible to get their record sealed, there are others who can’t get their convictions expunged or are stuck waiting for the law to address their record. “The Clean Slate piece of what’s happening in America is like the first step on the front side of this conversation; the other side is the DEI and fair chance conversation happening on the back end,” Oliver says. “I think the primary question is: What happens when a company or a business owner or a housing provider looks at the record? It’s not the record; it’s how we perceive the record.”