Newark ban-the-box ordinance (2026): repealed for hiring in 2015, and what applies instead

Newark's 2012 ban-the-box ordinance no longer governs hiring. New Jersey's Opportunity to Compete Act preempted local ordinances on criminal history in employment when it took effect on March 1, 2015, except ordinances regulating a municipality's own operations, and on April 15, 2015 the Newark Municipal Council repealed the 2012 ordinance in its entirety and replaced it with Chapter 2:31 of the city code, which covers only rental housing and City licenses. As of November 2026, a job in Newark follows the state Act and federal law, not a Newark rule. What follows is what the old ordinance required, why it stopped applying, what Chapter 2:31 still does, and how to clean up Newark-era hiring forms.

What happened to Newark's ban-the-box ordinance?

The editor's note at the top of Chapter 2:31 records it plainly: the 2012 ordinance "was repealed in its entirety by Ordinance No. 6 PSF-B, 4-15-2015." The Council's statement on the 2015 ordinance says it "repeals and replaces the original 'Ban the Box' ordinance with a new ordinance which prohibits landlords and the City of Newark from using the criminal history of an applicant" for housing or a license.

What did the 2012 Newark ordinance require?

This is history, not current law, but it explains why many Newark employers still have unusual steps in their handbooks. Article One of the 2012 ordinance applied to employers with five or more employees doing business, employing people or taking applications in Newark, including the City itself and employment agencies, for jobs located in whole or substantial part in the city. It:

• barred any criminal history inquiry before a candidate was found otherwise qualified and received a conditional offer, and allowed an inquiry at all only where the employer made a good-faith determination that the position was sensitive enough to warrant one;
• limited the lookback to indictable convictions for eight years and disorderly persons convictions or ordinance violations for five years after sentencing, plus pending charges, with murder, voluntary manslaughter and certain registrable sex offenses open regardless of age;
• barred any use of non-pending arrests that did not lead to a conviction, expunged or pardoned records, and juvenile or sealed records;
• required the employer to weigh listed factors, record them on an "Applicant Criminal Record Consideration form," send the results, the form and a written rejection by registered mail, and allow ten business days to respond before a final decision;
• banned ads expressing any limit based on criminal history, with fines of up to $500 for a first violation and up to $1,000 for repeat violations within three years.

The employment article took effect 60 days after passage. Its forms and timelines were specific enough that some employers built them into company-wide policies, which is why they still turn up in handbooks and adjudication guides.

Why did it stop applying to employers?

Section 7 of the Opportunity to Compete Act, codified at N.J.S.A. 34:6B-17, does two things. Subsection a says a county or municipality "shall not adopt any ordinance, resolution, law, rule or regulation regarding criminal histories in the employment context, except for ordinances adopted to regulate municipal operations." Subsection b says the Act "shall preempt" any such local rule adopted before its effective date, with the same municipal operations exception. The Labor Department's February 27, 2015 release described the result as a statewide standard "preempting all local ordinances."

The exception could have kept Newark's rule alive for the City's own hiring, but the Council did not keep an employment article. The 2015 replacement has no section on employment at all, so the City of Newark as an employer follows the state Act too; its definition of employer includes "any county or municipality."

What does Newark's Chapter 2:31 cover now?

Chapter 2:31, "Assistance for the Successful Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated People Into the Community ('BAN the BOX')," has two articles:

• Article 1, Housing (sections 2:31-1 to 2:31-9), for landlords and real estate brokers renting in Newark. It is outside the scope of a hiring page.
• Article 2, Licensing (sections 2:31-10 to 2:31-18), for any "certificate, license, permit, authorization, or grant of permission required by the City as a condition for the lawful practice of any occupation, employment, trade, vocation, business, or profession," firearms permits excluded.

Article 2 matters to recruiters when a candidate must hold a City of Newark license to do the job. Under it, the City may look into criminal history only after a formal application and a finding that the applicant is "otherwise qualified"; it must give written notice before the inquiry; it may not consider non-pending arrests without conviction, expunged or pardoned records, or juvenile and sealed records; a conviction "shall not be an automatic bar" to a business license; and after a refusal the City must send the results and its reasons by registered mail and allow 10 business days to respond before final action. Certain offenses, including murder, arson-related offenses, registrable sex offenses punishable by state prison and terrorism crimes, may be considered regardless of when they occurred.

What applies to a Newark job today?

The state Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees, staffing and placement agencies included, and stops criminal record questions until a first interview; its details, exceptions and a screening script are in our New Jersey ban-the-box guide. Against the old Newark rule, the practical differences are:

Federal law still applies on top. The EEOC rescinded its 2012 arrest and conviction records guidance on October 28, 2026, but Title VII itself, including its disparate impact provision, still applies, and a job-related review using the Green factors from the 1975 Eighth Circuit case (the nature and gravity of the offense, the time since it and the nature of the job) remains a sound way to make and document a decision. When a screening company supplies the report, follow the FCRA background check process. Other state limits on checks are in New Jersey background check laws.

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do for Newark roles?

1. Retire Newark-specific language. Policies, offer letters and adjudication guides that cite "the Newark ordinance," its conditional offer rule or its registered-mail notice are citing a repealed law. Keep the steps if you want them, but label them as company practice.
2. Apply the state timing rule to agency screens. The Act treats placement agencies as employers, and New Jersey's rules count a live phone or video call as an interview, so most desks leave criminal history to the client's process after its own interview.
3. Check for a City license. If the role needs a Newark license, the City's own Article 2 process and timeline will run separately from the employer's hiring decision; build that time into the start date.
4. Check the exceptions before asking early. Roles where a law requires a background check, law enforcement and corrections roles, and designated reentry programs are exempt from the state timing rule; write down which law supports the exception.
5. Keep volunteered information out of notes and submittals. See ban-the-box interview questions for wording that keeps the topic out of screens.

Template: replacing Newark-era language in a hiring policy

CRIMINAL HISTORY IN HIRING: NEW JERSEY ROLES, INCLUDING NEWARK
(replaces references to Newark Ordinance 6 PSF-F of 2012, which was
repealed on April 15, 2015)

1. Timing. For roles located in whole or substantial part in New Jersey,
   we do not ask about criminal records on applications, questionnaires
   or before the first interview, unless a documented exception under
   N.J.S.A. 34:6B-16 applies.
2. Ads. Our job ads do not say that people with arrests or convictions
   will not be considered.
3. Records we never use. Expunged records and records erased through
   executive pardon.
4. Our own review (company practice, not a Newark requirement). Before
   any decision based on a record, we consider the nature and gravity
   of the offense, the time since it and the nature of the job, and we
   write down that review.
5. Background reports. When a screening company supplies the report,
   we follow the FCRA: stand-alone disclosure and authorization, a
   pre-adverse action notice with the report and summary of rights, a
   waiting period of [5] business days (our choice), then a final notice.
6. Owner. [Name, title] keeps this policy current.

Newark rules at a glance