St. Louis ban-the-box ordinance for employers (2026): Ordinance 71074 on applications, ads and record searches

The City of St. Louis's ban-the-box law is Ordinance 71074 (Board Bill 120 of the 2019-2020 session), in effect since January 1, 2021. It applies to employers located in the City of St. Louis with ten or more employees and bars six practices: deciding on criminal history without showing the record was weighed and job-related; asking about it before the applicant is found otherwise qualified and has been interviewed; job ads that exclude people with records; exclusionary statements on hiring forms; criminal history questions on initial application forms; and seeking publicly available criminal history information. The Civil Rights Enforcement Agency (CREA) investigates complaints and the Office of the License Collector enforces, up to revocation of a business license for a third violation.

As of November 2026 the city's own pages still describe the ordinance as in force, and we found no later ordinance amending it. It is stricter than Kansas City's rule on ads, forms and record searches.

What does Ordinance 71074 prohibit?

Section One, subsection A of the ordinance text says it "shall be prohibited for employers located in the City of St. Louis with ten or more employees to":

1. "Base a hiring or promotional decision on a job applicant's criminal history or sentence related thereto, unless the employer can demonstrate that the employment-related decision is based on all information available including the frequency, recentness and severity of the criminal history and the history is reasonably related to or bears upon the duties and responsibilities of the job position";
2. "Inquire about a job applicant's criminal history until after it has been determined that the applicant is otherwise qualified for the job position, and only after the applicant has been interviewed for position except that such an inquiry may be made of all job applicants who are in the final selection pool from which the position will be filled";
3. "Publish job advertisements excluding applicants on the basis of criminal history," in hard copy or electronically;
4. "Include statements excluding applicants on the basis of criminal history in job application forms and other employer generated forms used in the hiring process";
5. "Inquire into, or require applicants to make disclosures regarding their criminal history on initial job application forms and other employer generated forms used in the initial phase of the hiring process"; and
6. "Seek to obtain publicly available information concerning job applicants' criminal history."

The city's ordinance page lists it as sponsored by Alderman John Collins-Muhammad, with third reading on January 10, 2020 and an effective date of January 1, 2021. Section Five also directed the License Collector to publicize compliance as a requirement for obtaining a city business license.

Who is covered?

• Employers located in the City with ten or more employees. CREA's ban-the-box page adds: "The ordinance does not cover employers with less than ten employees." The ordinance does not say where the ten employees must work.
• The City, not the County. The City of St. Louis is a separate jurisdiction from St. Louis County. An employer located only in Clayton, Chesterfield or another county municipality is outside the ordinance.
• Staffing agencies. The ordinance speaks of "employers." An agency located in the City with ten or more employees is an employer for the workers it hires onto its own payroll. When an agency posts a City client's job, the ad and any agency-built application are what the ordinance's ad and form rules describe, so write them to the City standard.
• Remote roles. The ordinance turns on where the employer is located and does not address remote work; ask counsel when a City employer hires someone who will work elsewhere.

When may a St. Louis employer ask about criminal history?

The sixth prohibition has no time limit in its own text. CREA's page reads the ordinance as a timing rule: for applicants it says employers "cannot ask about or investigate an applicant's criminal history until after determining that the applicant is otherwise qualified for the job position," and only after an interview, and that an employer choosing to inquire "must do so for all applicants who are in the final selection pool." A process that runs record checks only at that stage, and for everyone in the pool, follows both the text and the agency's reading.

Which positions are exempt?

Section One, subsection B says prohibitions 3, 4, 5 and 6 (ads, form statements, initial-form questions and public records searches) "shall not apply to job positions where federal or state laws and regulations, City ordinance prohibits employers from employing individuals with certain criminal histories." The text does not extend that exception to prohibitions 1 and 2, the decision and timing rules. Record the law that supports any exception on the requisition; a client preference is not one.

How do complaints and penalties work?

Under Section Two, a person aggrieved may complain to CREA, which investigates and recommends complaints "determined with merit" to the Office of the License Collector "for employer compliance." CREA's Report Discrimination page offers an online start ("Begin online"), a call to an investigator at 314-622-3301, or a Charge of Discrimination form mailed or brought to CREA at the Carnahan Courthouse, 1114 Market St., Suite 626, St. Louis, MO 63103, or emailed to [email protected]. Neither the ordinance nor that page states a filing deadline.

Section Three sets the penalties:

1. First violation: a warning from the License Collector, or an order to comply within 30 days.
2. Second violation: an order to comply within 30 days and a civil penalty set by the License Collector that should not exceed the maximum allowed under the city's revised code and ordinances.
3. Third violation: potential revocation of the employer's business operating license.

Section Three also tells the License Collector, with the CREA director and the chair of the Board of Aldermen's Legislation Committee, to adopt rules and procedures for imposing penalties. We did not find them published on the city's site as of November 2026. The ordinance sets out no private lawsuit; its remedies run through CREA and the License Collector.

How does the St. Louis rule fit with Missouri and Illinois law?

• No state rule for private employers. Missouri has no statewide ban-the-box law for private employers, as our Missouri ban-the-box rules explain.
• No preemption found. The state preemption statute, RSMo 290.528, covers local minimum wage and employment benefit mandates. 2025 bills that would have reached local rules on job application content (HB 443 and SB 325) did not become law, and the Revisor still shows section 290.528 as last amended in 2017.
• Expunged records. Under RSMo 610.140.11, a person with an expungement may answer "no" to an employer's criminal history question if no public record remains, unless the employer must exclude certain convictions by law; the 2026 automatic expungement changes are in our Missouri background check guide.
• The Metro East. Jobs on the Illinois side follow Illinois law, including the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act; see ban the box in Illinois.
• Other Missouri cities. Kansas City has a similar timing rule without the ad, form and records-search provisions, and Columbia waits until a conditional offer.

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do on St. Louis roles?

1. At intake, confirm the employer is located in the City (not the County) and has ten or more employees, and ask whether any law bars hiring people with certain criminal histories for this job.
2. Audit the ad, the application, the candidate portal and every knockout question for criminal history wording before the job goes live.
3. Stop sourcing habits that pull records early, such as court-site or people-search lookups on applicants.
4. Leave the final-pool question and any check to the stage after the client's interview, for everyone in the pool.
5. Decide who sends which notice. The ordinance requires none of its own. When a consumer report is used, the FCRA pre-adverse and adverse action notices come from whoever takes the adverse action, usually the agency for a temp on its payroll and the client for a direct hire; see the FCRA background check process.
6. Document every decision that turns on a record, using the frequency, recentness, severity and job-relatedness factors. Title VII still applies, and the EEOC rescinded its 2012 criminal records guidance on October 28, 2026; the Green factors from the 1975 Eighth Circuit case remain a sound way to make the review.

Template: St. Louis posting and application language

ST. LOUIS CITY JOB POSTING AND APPLICATION CHECK (Ordinance 71074)

Remove from ads, applications and initial-phase forms:
  [ ] "No felonies" / "clean record" / "must pass background check to apply"
  [ ] "Have you ever been convicted...?" or any criminal history checkbox
  [ ] Knockout questions about arrests, charges or convictions
  [ ] Instructions to recruiters to search court records before interviews

Posting line (example wording):
  "We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories. Any background
  check happens after interviews, for all finalists, and a record is reviewed
  against the duties of this job."

Exception claimed? Law that bars hiring people with certain criminal
histories for this position: ______________ (applies to the ad, form and
records-search rules only)

St. Louis ban-the-box rules at a glance

The agency also publishes a one-page Ban the Box flyer that employers can share with hiring managers. For a written company policy, start from our fair chance hiring policy template.