Background check laws California employers must follow sit at the intersection of some of the most layered, most actively enforced employment regulations in the entire United States. If you’re hiring in California, you’re operating in a state that has built its own compliance framework on top of federal law, added city-level ordinances on top of that, and continues to expand and refine its requirements with nearly every legislative session.
That complexity trips up employers constantly. Not because they aren’t trying to get it right, but because California’s approach to background screening is genuinely different from what employers in most other states are accustomed to. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act establishes the national floor. California’s laws raise it. Then Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities raise it further still.
Whether you’re a small business hiring your first handful of employees or a large enterprise managing hundreds of hires a year across multiple California locations, the compliance obligations are the same. Background check laws California apply to covered employers, don’t bend based on company size alone, and the penalties for getting things wrong, at both the regulatory and civil litigation levels, are real.
This guide covers the full picture. Federal requirements that apply in California, the state-specific laws that go further, the city-level ordinances that add another layer, and the practical steps that make background checks in California for employment legally defensible from consent through final decision.
Employers Choice Screening has supported California employers for nearly 25 years. Here’s what you need to know.
The Federal Foundation: What FCRA Requires Before State Law Even Enters the Picture
Understanding background check laws California requires starting where all U.S. employer background screening starts: the Fair Credit Reporting Act. FCRA is the federal statute that governs how consumer reporting agencies collect and report information, and how employers must use that information in hiring decisions.
For any employer conducting background checks in California for employment through a third-party screening company, FCRA imposes a set of procedural requirements that apply before, during, and after the screening process.
Before ordering a background check, the employer must provide the applicant with a standalone disclosure and authorization form. This form must be a separate document, not buried in the employment application or combined with other onboarding paperwork. The applicant must sign the authorization before the check is ordered.
If the background check returns information that leads the employer toward an adverse hiring decision, FCRA requires a pre-adverse action notice. That notice must include a copy of the background report and a copy of the Summary of Consumer Rights under FCRA. The applicant must then be given a reasonable amount of time to review the report and dispute any inaccuracies before the decision is finalized.
Once the waiting period has passed, if the employer proceeds with the adverse decision, a final adverse action notice must be issued. That notice must inform the applicant of the decision, identify the consumer reporting agency that provided the report, and confirm that the CRA had no part in the hiring decision.
These FCRA steps are the baseline. Background check laws California add considerable requirements on top of every single one of them.
California’s Fair Chance Act: The State Law That Reshaped Background Checks in California for Employment
The California Fair Chance Act, which took effect in January 2018 and applies to employers with five or more employees, is the centerpiece of background check laws California for most private sector employers. It fundamentally changed when and how criminal history can enter the hiring process.
What the Fair Chance Act Requires
Under the Fair Chance Act, employers conducting background checks in California for employment cannot inquire about an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been extended. That means no criminal history questions on applications, no pre-offer criminal history inquiries of any kind, and no background checks ordered until the offer is already on the table.
Once a conditional offer has been made and a background check in California for employment returns criminal history, the employer cannot simply withdraw the offer. The law requires a written individualized assessment before any adverse action can be taken. That assessment must evaluate three specific factors: the nature and gravity of the offense, the time elapsed since the conviction or completion of sentence, and the nature of the job and its duties.
The assessment must be completed before any pre-adverse action notice is issued. The applicant must receive a copy of the completed assessment along with the pre-adverse action notice and the background report. California law then requires a minimum waiting period of five business days for the applicant to respond with evidence of rehabilitation, inaccuracies in the report, or other mitigating information.
If the applicant responds, the employer must conduct a second written assessment that considers whatever the applicant submitted. Only after that reassessment can the employer issue a final adverse action notice. Only after the final notice is issued, and another five business days have passed, can the offer formally be withdrawn.
That sequence is the most detailed adverse action process required by background check laws California, and it applies to every conditional offer withdrawn based on criminal history for covered employers across the state.
What the Fair Chance Act Does Not Cover
The Fair Chance Act has specific exemptions that are worth understanding. Positions that require a background check by law or regulation are exempt from certain provisions. Positions with access to firearms may be exempt. Criminal justice agency positions are also addressed separately. But for the vast majority of private sector hiring across California, the Fair Chance Act’s requirements apply in full.
California’s Seven-Year Rule on Reporting
Background check laws California include a significant restriction on what consumer reporting agencies can report that goes beyond federal FCRA standards. Under California law, adverse information in a background report is generally limited to the seven years preceding the report date for positions paying less than $125,000 annually.
This means that for most background checks in California for employment, criminal convictions, civil judgments, tax liens, and other adverse records older than seven years should not appear in the report for covered positions. Arrests that did not result in conviction are similarly restricted from consumer reports under California law, regardless of how recently they occurred.
For higher-earning positions above the salary threshold, the seven-year restriction lifts. Employers hiring for executive, senior management, or other high-compensation roles should be aware that a different set of reporting standards applies.
Understanding what should and shouldn’t appear in a California background report is important because receiving and acting on information that shouldn’t have been reported creates its own legal exposure under background check laws California.
The California Consumer Privacy Act and Background Screening
The California Consumer Privacy Act, now strengthened by the California Privacy Rights Act, is not an employment-specific statute, but it has meaningful implications for background checks in California for employment. The CCPA and CPRA give California residents significant rights over how their personal information is collected, used, and retained.
While there are employment-specific modifications to how these laws apply to employee and applicant data, background check laws California in this space are still evolving. Employers conducting background checks in California for employment need to understand their obligations around data disclosure, retention, and deletion, particularly for applicants who are not hired.
Working with a background screening company that has built its data handling practices around California’s privacy requirements is one of the most practical ways to manage this compliance layer without placing the full burden on your internal HR team.
Local Ordinances: Where Background Check Laws California Get Even More Specific
State law establishes the framework. California’s major cities have added requirements that go further still. For employers operating in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or other cities with local fair chance ordinances, background check laws California at the local level can’t be ignored.
Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring
The Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance covers employers with 10 or more employees operating in the City of Los Angeles. It applies to positions that will be performed at least two hours per week within city limits.
Los Angeles goes further than state law in several respects. The city’s ordinance specifies a written fair chance assessment form that must be completed before any conditional offer can be withdrawn on criminal history grounds. The assessment must be shared with the applicant, and the response window is at least five business days from receipt, with the city recommending employers allow additional time for applicants who need it.
The ordinance also restricts which types of criminal history an employer can consider for particular job categories and prohibits consideration of certain arrests, detentions, and diversions. For employers with Los Angeles locations, background check laws California at the local level in this city represent one of the most detailed compliance regimes in the country.
San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance predates the state Fair Chance Act and, in several respects, goes further than the state law. It covers employers with five or more employees and applies to positions performed within San Francisco.
San Francisco’s ordinance restricts which criminal records employers may consider in background checks in California for employment, including prohibitions on considering certain misdemeanors and infractions, arrests that did not result in conviction, participation in diversion programs, and convictions for which the applicant received a pardon.
The city also imposes specific requirements around the individualized assessment process and the content of pre-adverse action notices, with requirements that must be layered on top of state law obligations.
Other California Cities With Local Requirements
Richmond, East Palo Alto, and Compton have their own local ban-the-box or fair chance ordinances that add further compliance layers for covered employers. Any multi-location California employer needs a jurisdiction-aware screening process that can apply the correct rules to each candidate based on where the position is located, not just where the company is headquartered.
Background Checks in California for Employment: Industry-Specific Considerations
Certain industries face additional requirements under background check laws California that sit alongside, and sometimes override, the general Fair Chance Act framework.
Healthcare
California healthcare employers must conduct background checks that include criminal history searches, professional license verification, and OIG exclusion screening. The state’s healthcare licensing boards impose their own standards for what criminal history disqualifies individuals from licensure, which means background checks in California for employment in healthcare settings must be evaluated against both the Fair Chance Act’s individualized assessment requirements and the licensing board’s standards for the specific credential.
Child and Elder Care
Background checks in California for employment in settings serving children, elderly individuals, or people with disabilities are subject to the Community Care Licensing Division’s requirements, which include fingerprint-based criminal background checks processed through the California Department of Justice and the FBI. These requirements apply regardless of ban-the-box or Fair Chance Act protections, because they are independently mandated by licensing law.
Financial Services
For financial services roles, background checks in California for employment that include credit history review must comply with California’s restrictions on the use of credit reports in employment decisions. California Labor Code Section 1024.5 limits the circumstances under which employers can use an applicant’s credit history, restricting it to specific role categories, including positions with significant financial responsibility, access to trade secrets, or a managerial role above a defined threshold.
The Individualized Assessment Under Background Check Laws California: Getting It Right
The individualized assessment requirement appears in both the state Fair Chance Act and Los Angeles’s local ordinance, and it’s the element of background check laws California that most frequently creates compliance failures.
An individualized assessment is not a form letter. It is not a checkbox exercise. It is a documented, reasoned analysis that engages specifically with the individual applicant’s record, the time that has passed, and the actual duties of the role being filled. Courts and the California Civil Rights Department have made clear that assessments that reach the same outcome for every applicant with a particular type of conviction are not genuinely individualized and do not satisfy background check laws California.
The practical implication is that your team, or a qualified reviewer within your organization, must engage with the specifics of each record and each role. Evidence of rehabilitation matters. The applicant’s response during the waiting period must be genuinely considered and reflected in the final assessment conclusion. Documentation of that process must be retained.
For employers running background checks in California for employment at volume, building a structured assessment workflow with a consistent framework and role-specific nexus criteria is the most practical way to deliver genuinely individualized assessments consistently across every hire.
Marijuana and Cannabis Convictions Under Background Check Laws California
California’s passage of Proposition 64 and subsequent legislation has created specific protections for cannabis-related convictions in the employment context. Background check laws California prohibit employers from asking about, considering, or discriminating against applicants based on marijuana convictions that have been dismissed, sealed, or expunged under the state’s cannabis legalization framework.
AB 2188, which took effect in January 2024, further restricts employers from discriminating against applicants based on off-duty cannabis use or on the results of pre-employment drug tests that detect non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites. This doesn’t eliminate all cannabis-related screening considerations, particularly for safety-sensitive roles, but it does change what background checks in California for employment can include and how results can be used.
Employers whose screening programs haven’t been updated to reflect this legislation are running a compliance risk that is straightforward to address with the right screening partner.
What a Compliant Background Check Process Looks Like in California
Pulling all of these requirements together, here is what a compliant background check in California for the employment process looks like for a standard private sector hire in a city like Los Angeles.
The application does not inquire about criminal history. After a thorough recruitment and interview process, a conditional offer is extended. At that point, the employer provides a standalone FCRA disclosure and authorization form, along with California-specific disclosure forms required under state law. The applicant signs and returns the authorization.
The background check is ordered. If no criminal history is returned, the hiring process continues. If a criminal history is returned, the employer conducts a written individualized assessment before taking any other step. The assessment evaluates the nature and gravity of the offense, the time elapsed, and the requirements of the role. The employer prepares the pre-adverse action notice, attaches the background report, the consumer rights summary, and the completed assessment, and delivers it to the applicant.
The applicant has five business days, at minimum, to respond. Any response received is reviewed, and a second written assessment is completed. If the employer proceeds with the adverse decision, the final adverse action notice is issued, and another waiting period passes before the offer is formally withdrawn.
Every step in that process is documented and retained. Every document is stored in a format that supports audit and review.
That is what compliance with background check laws California actually looks like.
How Employers Choice Screening Supports California Employers
Navigating background check laws California without experienced support is genuinely challenging. The layering of federal FCRA requirements, state Fair Chance Act obligations, local ordinances, industry-specific mandates, and evolving privacy law creates a compliance environment that demands both expertise and purpose-built technology.
Employers Choice Screening is a PBSA-accredited background screening company that has worked with California employers across every industry and hiring scale for nearly 25 years. Our background checks in California for employment are built around the state’s specific requirements, from the individualized assessment workflow to the jurisdiction-specific adverse action timing to the restrictions on what information can be reported and used.
Our platform integrates directly with the ATS and HRIS systems your team already uses, automates the adverse action process with California-compliant timing, and provides real-time order tracking so your hiring team always knows where each check stands.
We also provide access to our interactive 50 State Compliance Guide, which covers background check laws California in full alongside requirements for every other U.S. jurisdiction. When California law changes, our clients know about it before it affects their next hire.
Get California Background Screening Right From the Start
Background check laws California are detailed, demanding, and enforced. For employers who take the time to understand them and build compliant processes around them, they are entirely manageable. For employers who treat California like every other state and run a generic screening program without accounting for the state’s specific requirements, the risk of a regulatory action or civil claim is substantial.
The good news is that compliance doesn’t have to be complicated when you have the right support. Employers Choice Screening has been helping California employers navigate background check laws California for nearly 25 years, and our platform is built specifically for the compliance demands of this state.
Whether you’re establishing a new screening program, reviewing your existing process for gaps, or looking for a partner who understands the full scope of background checks in California for employment from FCRA through the Fair Chance Act to the latest local ordinances, our team is ready.
When can a California employer run a background check?
Only after a conditional job offer has been extended. Criminal history inquiries at the application stage are prohibited for employers with five or more employees.
How far back can a background check go in California?
Seven years for most positions paying under $125,000 annually. Arrests without convictions are restricted regardless of salary level.
What is the individualized assessment requirement?
A written evaluation of the offense’s nature and gravity, time elapsed, and job requirements, completed before any conditional offer can be withdrawn based on criminal history.
How long does an applicant have to respond to a pre-adverse action notice?
A minimum of five business days under state law. Los Angeles recommends allowing additional time beyond that minimum.
Does Los Angeles have its own rules on top of state law?
Yes. The Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance applies to employers with 10 or more employees. It adds specific assessment forms, extended response periods, and additional restrictions on which records can be considered.
Can California employers use credit history in hiring?
Only for specific roles, positions with significant financial responsibility, access to trade secrets, or certain managerial functions. It cannot be used for general hiring.
How does cannabis legalization affect background screening in California?
Employers cannot consider expunged or sealed marijuana convictions. As of January 2024, pre-employment tests detecting non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites and discrimination based on off-duty cannabis use are also restricted.
What are the consequences of violating California’s Fair Chance Act?
Penalties include civil fines, back pay, and potential lawsuits filed directly by affected applicants. Both state and local ordinances, such as Los Angeles’s FCIHO, create private rights of action.