Philadelphia Tightens Hiring Rules on Criminal History
Philadelphia’s Ban the Box law has changed. Understand the 2026 rules on lookback limits, summary offense bans, and new pre-adverse action procedures.
Philadelphia just raised the bar on fair chance hiring, again. On October 8, 2025, Mayor Cherelle Parker signed a sweeping amendment to the city’s Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards, better known as its “ban the box” law. The updated rules, passed by the City Council in September, take effect on January 6, 2026.
The latest amendment further restricts how employers may consider criminal history in hiring and employment decisions. It adds new worker protections, strengthens procedural safeguards, and reinforces the city’s longstanding requirement that employers evaluate criminal records through an individualized, equitable assessment.
A Brief History of Philadelphia’s Ban the Box Journey
Philadelphia’s ordinance has evolved steadily since its inception.
In 2011, the city became one of the first in the country to prohibit private employers with 10 or more employees from including criminal history questions on job applications. Employers could only consider criminal records after an initial interview and were barred from relying on arrests that didn’t lead to convictions.
By 2016, the law expanded to cover all employers with at least one employee in Philadelphia, with narrow exceptions. The city prohibited conviction inquiries until after a conditional job offer, limited conviction consideration to seven years, and required employers to assess whether a conviction was job-related and posed an unacceptable risk.
In 2021, the ordinance expanded again, extending protections to gig economy workers and current employees, allowing inquiries into pending charges in limited circumstances, and replacing punitive damages with liquidated damages of up to $5,000.
The 2025 amendment builds on this foundation and signals the next step in a consistent and deliberate policy evolution.
Five Key Changes Employers Should Know
1. Four-Year Misdemeanor Lookback
Employers may now consider misdemeanor convictions only if the underlying arrest or release from incarceration occurred within the past four years. This shortens the lookback period from the previous seven-year standard. Felony convictions remain subject to the seven-year window.
Employers will need to track both the conviction type and the timeline carefully when conducting individualized assessments.
2. Summary Offenses Now Off-Limits
Philadelphia employers can no longer consider summary offenses, minor infractions under Pennsylvania law, often resolved with a citation or fine. This brings the city’s rules into alignment with the state’s treatment of summary offenses.
While employers must disregard summary offenses under the ordinance, some background reports may still include them, particularly if those records remain publicly available or unsealed. In those cases, employers may need to take additional steps to ensure that disqualifying decisions are based only on information they are legally permitted to consider.
3. Stronger Protections for Sealed and Expunged Records
Employers may not consider expunged or sealed criminal records, even if they appear in a background check or in driver history reports from PennDOT. Before making a final decision, employers must give applicants an opportunity to provide proof of sealing or expungement.
4. Expanded Notice and Rebuttal Rights
Philadelphia’s ordinance has long required employers to notify candidates before taking adverse action based on criminal history and to offer an opportunity for rebuttal. The 2025 amendment reinforces that obligation and raises the bar.
Employers must now issue a written, provisional notice when they intend to take adverse action based, in whole or in part, on criminal record information, rather than waiting until the decision is final. That notice must identify the specific convictions under consideration, include a copy of the background check used, explain the applicant’s rights under the ordinance in plain language, and offer clear instructions for how to respond.
Employers must give applicants ten business days to submit evidence of error, rehabilitation, or mitigation. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is also empowered to issue templates and regulatory guidance to help employers comply.
These enhancements closely mirror the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s pre-adverse action framework but go further by codifying the employer’s duty to evaluate context, not just content, when assessing criminal history.
5. Reinforced Anti-Retaliation Protections
A new rebuttable presumption of retaliation applies if an employer takes adverse action within 90 days of an applicant or employee asserting their rights under the ordinance. Employers must demonstrate that any adverse action was based on just cause and unrelated to the protected activity.
What Employers Should Do Now
With the amendment now signed into law, employers should use the time before January 6, 2026 to review their policies, train hiring teams, and prepare for implementation.
Employers with operations in Philadelphia, including those hiring remote or hybrid workers who may fall under the city’s jurisdiction, should act now. Waiting could leave teams scrambling to comply.
Start by reviewing the proposed changes against your current hiring and background screening practices. Focus on the shortened four-year misdemeanor lookback period, the new prohibition on summary offenses, and the enhanced requirements for pre-adverse action notices and rebuttal rights.
From there, assess what operational changes you’ll need to make. That might mean revising adverse action templates, adjusting workflows to account for sealed or expunged records, and training HR and hiring teams on how to evaluate rehabilitation evidence during individualized assessments.
By taking proactive steps now, employers can position themselves to hit the ground running, and avoid costly compliance mistakes once the law takes effect.
Parting Thoughts
Over the past 14 years, Philadelphia has steadily transformed fair chance hiring from a policy goal into an enforceable legal standard. For employers, staying ahead of these changes reduces legal exposure, strengthens equitable hiring practices, and proves that second chances and sound business judgment can go hand in hand.
Release Date: October 13, 2025
Alonzo Martinez
Alonzo Martinez is Associate General Counsel at HireRight, where he supports the company’s compliance, legal research, and thought leadership initiatives in the background screening industry. As a senior contributor at Forbes, Alonzo writes on employment legislation, criminal history reform, pay equity, AI discrimination laws, and the impact of legalized cannabis on employers. Recognized as an industry influencer, he shares insights through his weekly video updates, media appearances, podcasts, and HireRight's compliance webinar series. Alonzo's commitment to advancing industry knowledge ensures HireRight remains at the forefront of creating actionable compliance content.