We previously wrote about laws which would bar employers from requiring job applicants to disclose their credit history.  We asked on May 12, 2013 “Is bad credit an accurate predictor of employee trustworthiness or reliability?  Or is it discriminatory?”  We first discussed this in 2011:  https://employmentdiscrimination.foxrothschild.com/2011/02/articles/another-category/careful-how-you-use-those-credit-checks-they-could-be-discriminatory/

Now, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and a number of other Democratic senators have co-sponsored a bill which would do just that, “the Equal Employment for All Act.”   The bill would prohibit employers from asking job applicants about their credit history.

Sen. Warren said that “A bad credit rating is far more often the result of unexpected medical costs, unemployment, economic downturns or other bad breaks than it is a reflection on an individual’s character or abilities. … Let people compete on the merits, not on whether they already have enough money to pay all their bills.”

The New York Times in an Editor’s blog weighed in.  It said that “Research has shown that people with poor credit histories are not automatically poor job prospects. And there’s good reason to doubt the quality of credit reports. A study produced earlier this year by the Federal Trade Commission found that five percent of consumers — or perhaps as many as ten million people — had errors in their credit reports that could result in them having to pay more for loans.”

Thoughts, anyone?