Labor Market Effects of Permitting Employer Access to Criminal History Records

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about the wisdom of allowing employers to use criminal history records in the employment screening process. The debate typically places the rights of individuals with criminal history records against the rights of employers concerned about hiring workers who might be inclined to commit crime in the workplace. The author argues that such a characterization of the debate is too narrow. In particular, this article uses a simple economic analysis to argue that employer access to criminal history records might actually increase the wages of individuals without criminal history records and may, moreover, increase average market wages for groups of individuals with large number of convicted individuals, such as Black males. This theory is tested by exploiting cross-state variation in policies governing employer access to criminal history records.