From: Heather McGhee

Dear MoveOn member,

I’m Heather McGhee of the organization Demos, and I started a petition to Congress, which says:

Credit checks for employment needlessly harm those who need jobs most. People’s experiences with medical debt, student debt, or other economically challenging circumstances should not stop them from getting a job. Please support Senator Elizabeth Warren’s mission to end this appalling practice through the Equal Employment for All Act.
Sign Heather’s petition
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=295722&id=84608-21095459-pfS28%3Dx&t=1

Credit reports were originally developed to assist financial creditors in considering the degree of risk involved in lending assets to would-be borrowers. Over time, however, employers began using personal credit histories as a means to assess job worthiness and character.

Today nearly half of all employers conduct credit checks as a condition of employment, including for a number of non-financial jobs such as home aide services, maintenance, and telephone technical support. Job candidates and employees have limited legal recourse to object to this practice.

Sign this petition in support of Elizabeth Warren’s Employment for All Act, and end the practice of employment credit checks.
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=295722&id=84608-21095459-pfS28%3Dx&t=2

No definitive body of research correlates the usage of employment credit checks—and poor credit histories specifically—to any real or perceived measure of job performance. Poor credit most significantly reflects one or a combination of three challenges: unemployment, a lack of health insurance, and medical debt.

Poor and/or minority candidates are disproportionately discriminated against through this practice. As a result, able-bodied workers remain excluded from the workforce, which keeps them from earning the very income that they need in order to improve upon the credit histories that impair their job prospects.

Employment in America should not operate in this manner. Senator Elizabeth Warren seeks to put an end to the practice of employment credit checks, through the Equal Employment for All Act. Stand in support of this cause by signing this petition today!

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=295722&id=84608-21095459-pfS28%3Dx&t=3

Thanks!

–Heather McGhee

This petition was created on MoveOn’s online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Demos didn’t pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.