New York background check laws for employers (2026): what you can check and when

New York employers may run background checks on candidates, but the state's own Fair Credit Reporting Act (General Business Law Article 25), the Human Rights Law and the Correction Law add steps that the federal FCRA does not. As of October 2026, the main ones are a written notice before any consumer report, a copy of Correction Law Article 23-A for the candidate whenever a report contains convictions, a seven-year limit on reporting convictions for jobs paying under $25,000 a year, a ban on asking about dismissed and sealed cases, the Article 23-A test before rejecting anyone for a conviction, and a statewide limit on employment credit checks. New York City adds a conditional-offer rule and its own credit check ban.

This page puts those layers in one place. The federal paperwork is on the FCRA background check process, and how Article 23-A, Executive Law 296 and the NYC Fair Chance Act work on criminal history is covered in depth on New York's ban-the-box rules. Here we add what those pages do not: the state reporting statute, the lookback limits, credit history, the fingerprint checks state agencies run, and a checklist that pulls it together.

What does New York add to the federal FCRA?

New York's Fair Credit Reporting Act sets its own notice steps, which run alongside the federal stand-alone disclosure and authorization.

• Notice before an ordinary consumer report. Under General Business Law 380-b(b), before requesting a consumer report for an employment application, the employer must tell the candidate, in writing or in the same way the application was made, that a report may be requested, and that on request the candidate will be told whether one was requested and given the name and address of the screening company that furnished it.
• Investigative consumer reports. If the screening company will gather information on character, reputation or mode of living through interviews, section 380-c requires prior notice (in writing if the application was written) and the candidate's authorization. The notice must say the candidate may ask whether a report was requested and, if so, get the agency's name and address and inspect and receive a copy from the agency. When the report is requested in connection with an offer of employment, the notice must include a copy of Article 23-A of the Correction Law.
• Conviction information. When a consumer report used by the employer contains criminal conviction information, the person who requested it must give the candidate "a printed or electronic copy of article twenty-three-A of the correction law" (section 380-g(d)).

A simple way to never miss the copy is to include Article 23-A in the authorization packet for every New York candidate and again with the federal pre-adverse action notice, so it is there whenever a report turns out to contain a conviction.

How far back can a New York background check go?

General Business Law 380-j sets two limits on what a screening company may report:

• Arrests and charges without a conviction may not be reported at all, unless the charges are still pending (380-j(a)(1)). Federal law, by contrast, allows reporting arrests up to seven years old.
• Convictions may not be reported when, from the date of disposition, release or parole, they are more than seven years old (380-j(f)(1)(v)). The limit does not apply to employment at an annual salary that equals, or may reasonably be expected to equal, $25,000 or more (380-j(f)(2)(iii)).

So for most full-time jobs in New York, the state does not cap how old a reported conviction may be, and the federal FCRA does not either (15 U.S.C. § 1681c limits only non-conviction items, and lifts even that at $75,000). Older convictions are still subject to the Article 23-A factors, one of which is the time that has passed since the offense.

Which records can New York employers never ask about or use?

Executive Law 296(16) applies to any person, agency, bureau, corporation or association, so it reaches staffing agencies as well as employers. Unless a statute specifically requires or permits it, no one may ask about, or act on, a criminal accusation that ended in the person's favor and is not pending, an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, a youthful offender adjudication, or a sealed conviction. The person asked may answer as if the matter never happened.

The Clean Slate Act widened the set of sealed records. Under Criminal Procedure Law 160.57, eligible misdemeanor convictions are sealed automatically three years after sentencing or release from incarceration, and eligible felony convictions after eight years, provided the person has no pending charge and is not under probation or parole for the conviction. Sex offenses and most class A felonies are excluded, and the Office of Court Administration must finish sealing older eligible convictions within three years of the section's effective date.

Sealed does not mean invisible to every employer. Section 160.57 still gives access to entities that are required by law to obtain a fingerprint-based criminal history check, and to entities authorized by law to run fingerprint checks on fitness to care for children, older people, people with disabilities or other vulnerable groups. That is the fingerprint route described below, not a screening company report.

When can you ask about convictions, and how must you decide?

Statewide, Correction Law Article 23-A bars denying a job because of a conviction unless there is a direct relationship between the offense and the job or hiring would be an unreasonable risk, judged on eight factors in section 753. A rejected candidate may ask for a written statement of the reasons, due within 30 days of the request (section 754).

In New York City, employers with four or more employees may not ask about criminal history, run a background check or otherwise look for records until after a conditional offer, according to the NYC Commission on Human Rights. To withdraw an offer, the employer must share a written analysis under the city's Fair Chance factors with a copy of the report and hold the job open at least five business days for a response. The full steps and a recruiter script are on New York's ban-the-box page.

Can New York employers check credit, salary history or social media?

Credit. As published on the New York Senate's site in October 2026, General Business Law 380-b(d) makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer, labor organization or employment agency "to request or to use for employment purposes the consumer credit history of an applicant for employment or employee." The exceptions cover:

• employers required by state or federal law, or by a securities self-regulatory organization, to use credit history;
• police officer, peace officer and law enforcement investigative roles;
• positions subject to background investigation by a state agency;
• positions that must be bonded under state or federal law;
• positions requiring a security clearance;
• non-clerical positions with regular access to trade secrets, intelligence information or national security information;
• signatory authority over third-party funds or assets of $10,000 or more, or a fiduciary role with authority to enter financial agreements of $10,000 or more for the employer;
• positions whose regular duties allow modifying digital security systems that protect the employer's or a client's networks or databases.

The Senate's site shows this subdivision in revisions dated December 2025 to April 2026; we could not confirm its effective date on the legislature's site, so check it with counsel before your next New York credit check. New York City's separate ban is in Administrative Code 8-107(24); both are compared with other states on credit check laws for employers.

Salary history. Labor Law 194-a bars asking about or relying on it; see New York's salary history ban.

Social media. Labor Law 201-i bars requiring an applicant to hand over a username or password to a personal account, to open it in front of the employer, or to reproduce its content, and bars refusing to hire someone who declines. Looking at information that is public without login credentials is still allowed.

Which New York jobs require fingerprint checks?

For some jobs the check is run by a state agency through fingerprints, which go to the Division of Criminal Justice Services and the FBI. The main programs, from the statutes:

• Schools. School districts, charter schools, BOCES and nonpublic schools submit prospective employees' fingerprints to the State Education Department, which obtains the state and FBI records and tells the employer whether the applicant is cleared. A conditional clearance answer is due within fifteen business days of receiving the fingerprints (Education Law 3035).
• Nursing homes, home care and adult care. Residential health care facilities, certified and licensed home care agencies, hospice programs and adult homes must request a criminal history record check through the Department of Health. A provider may approve a prospective employee temporarily while the check is pending only with documented direct observation, and may not charge the applicant for the check (Public Health Law 2899-a).
• Child day care. Prospective employees, directors, operators and some volunteers need state and FBI fingerprint checks, sex offender registry checks and a Statewide Central Register check, repeated at least every five years (Social Services Law 390-b).

If you place workers into these settings, the facility's clearance process decides when the worker may start, so agree with the client who submits fingerprints and who tracks the result.

New York background check rules at a glance

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do?

1. Build a New York packet. Federal disclosure and authorization, the GBL 380-b notice, the 380-c notice if any interviews of references are involved, and a copy of Article 23-A. Ask your screening company for its New York forms and have counsel approve them.
2. Strip the never-ask categories from screens. No questions about dismissed, sealed, ACD or youthful offender matters anywhere in the state, and no criminal history questions at all before a conditional offer in New York City. If a candidate volunteers a case, do not follow up or note it. If you transcribe interviews with an AI note taker, remove the passage from any notes you share.
3. Check the credit exception before you order. Staffing agencies are named in GBL 380-b(d), so a client's request for a credit check needs a listed exception, written down.
4. Run the Article 23-A analysis in writing before any rejection based on a conviction, and in New York City share it with the report and wait five business days.
5. Keep drug testing separate. It follows its own rules, covered in New York drug testing laws.
6. Keep the reasons ready. A candidate may ask for a written statement within 30 days, so file the analysis with the hiring record. A background check notification email template helps keep the notices consistent.