South Carolina ban-the-box rules: no state law, 2025 bills, Columbia and expunged records

South Carolina has no ban-the-box law, as of October 2026. No statute restricts when a public or private employer may ask about criminal history, and the four 2025-2026 bills on criminal history in hiring, including H.3272 and H.3775, the "Ban the Box Act," show no action after referral to House committees. The City of Columbia applies a fair chance rule to its own jobs only. The state rule that does reach every employer is about expunged records: S.C. Code 17-22-960 bars using them against an employee and keeps them out of negligent hiring cases.

Does South Carolina have a ban-the-box law?

No, for private employers or for state and local government. We found no section of the South Carolina Code that tells an employer when it may ask about criminal history, and the bills below exist precisely because there is none. A South Carolina employer may ask on the application under state law. Federal law still governs how a record is used and how a check is run, covered further down.

Which South Carolina ban-the-box bills are pending?

Four House bills filed for the 126th General Assembly (2025-2026) address criminal history in hiring. Each bill page shows the same history: prefiled or introduced in December 2024 or January 2025, referred to committee, and nothing since.

As filed, H.3272 and H.3775 would not apply to people seeking jobs with the Department of Corrections or a financial institution, or to employers with a statutory duty to run a criminal history check or consider criminal history, and would let employers tell applicants that law or policy disqualifies people with particular records from particular jobs. None of this is law; we list it so a client that has read about the "Ban the Box Act" knows where it stands.

What does Columbia require?

Columbia City Code sections 2-351 to 2-356, Ordinance 2019-022 of August 6, 2019, define the employer as "the City of Columbia as a municipal corporation." For city jobs:

• The city runs background checks only for positions it has determined in good faith are sensitive enough, or where the law requires one, and says so in the job announcement.
• "Job applications shall not inquire into an applicant's conviction history," and the city may not inquire into or consider it "until after the applicant has received a conditional offer."
• It may not use arrests not followed by a conviction, sealed, dismissed or expunged convictions, misdemeanors that cannot carry jail time, or infractions, and it considers only job-related convictions, judged by the link to the duties, the chance of a similar offense, whether the circumstances would recur and the time since the offense.
• Before an adverse decision, it identifies the conviction, gives a copy of the report and examples of mitigation evidence, and gives the applicant ten business days to respond, holding the position open until it decides.

Section 2-353(h) still refers to factors recommended by the EEOC; the EEOC rescinded its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records on October 28, 2026, while the city's own factors above remain in the code. Vendors are not bound by the rule, but section 2-355 says the city "encourages" them to adopt consistent conviction and wage history policies, and the awarding authority may review a vendor's policies during bidding, use them as award criteria and evaluate how the vendor follows them under the contract. A client bidding for City of Columbia work should expect the question.

We did not review the codes of Charleston, Greenville, North Charleston or other cities for this page. If you recruit for a city or county government, ask its human resources office whether it follows a fair chance policy.

What does South Carolina law say about expunged records?

S.C. Code 17-22-960, "Expungement; employer immunity," added by 2018 Act No. 254 (H.3209) effective December 27, 2018, has three parts:

1. "Any employer that employs a worker who has had an expungement shall not, at any time, be subject to any administrative or legal claim or cause of action related to the worker's expunged offense."
2. "Except for criminal justice agencies, employers shall not use expunged information adversely against an employee."
3. "No information related to an expungement shall be used or introduced as evidence in any administrative or legal proceeding involving negligent hiring, negligent retention, or similar claims."

The practical reading for hiring: word any criminal history question so it excludes expunged matters, ask your screening company to suppress them, and if one appears, do not act on it. Which records can be expunged, how SLED CATCH searches work and which jobs require checks by law are covered in South Carolina background check laws.

What federal rules still apply in South Carolina?

• Title VII. The EEOC rescinded its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records on October 28, 2026, but Title VII and its disparate impact provision, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(k), still apply. 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) is still the safe practice where the state sets no rule of its own.
• Federal contractors. The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, 41 U.S.C. 4714, bars contractors from requesting criminal history before a conditional offer for positions related to work under a federal contract, for contracts awarded under solicitations issued after its effective date, with exceptions for positions where earlier review is required by law or that involve classified information or sensitive law enforcement or national security duties.
• The FCRA. Screening company reports need a stand-alone disclosure, written authorization and the pre-adverse and adverse action notices in the FCRA background check process.

South Carolina criminal history rules at a glance

What should staffing agencies and recruiters do in South Carolina?

• Exclude expunged matters from every criminal history question on your forms and portal, and from what you pass to clients.
• Watch the bills. If H.3272 or H.3775 were enacted, the timing rule would reach private employers; until then, state law allows early questions.
• Keep the topic out of screens anyway. It keeps your practice consistent with clients in stricter states and keeps volunteered details out of notes.
• Care staffing: agencies that furnish workers to direct care entities have their own state check duty, covered in the background check guide.
• Licensing and the rest of the state rules: see South Carolina staffing agency licensing and hiring employees in South Carolina.

Questions to settle with a South Carolina client at intake

• Is the client the City of Columbia, another government, a federal contractor or a private employer?
• Is the client a City of Columbia vendor or bidding for city work, where its conviction history policy may be reviewed?
• Does any law require a check for this job or disqualify people with specific convictions? Which law?
• Does the client's application exclude expunged records?
• Who orders the background check, who weighs a record against the job, and who sends the FCRA notices?

A script for South Carolina screens

Client asks if a "ban the box" law applies: "Not in South Carolina yet. Bills were filed in 2025 but haven't left committee. Federal rules still apply to how records are used, so we keep it out of my screen and in your background step."

Candidate asks about an expunged charge: "South Carolina employers can't use expunged information against you, and I don't ask about records on my screen."

Candidate volunteers a conviction: "Thanks for telling me. I won't note it. If the employer runs a check, it's a separate step and you'd see anything they rely on."

A South Carolina checklist for recruiting desks

1. Reword criminal history questions to exclude expunged records, and never act on one that appears.
2. For City of Columbia roles, leave criminal history to the city's process after a conditional offer.
3. Keep criminal history out of recruiter screens and submittals; see what not to write in interview notes.
4. Route screening company reports through the FCRA steps and write down the job-related reason for any decision.
5. Check the status of H.3272 and H.3775 when the General Assembly next meets.
6. For the federal picture and scripts used in stricter states, see ban-the-box laws and interview questions.