Every thing that lives, lives not alone, nor for itself.William Blake

A Second Chance

More and more would be employers are using credit checks to determine the fitness of a potential employee. Sometimes a stack of resumes can be quickly whittled after credit checks are run on applicants, discarding those with too much debt, a bankruptcy filing or the like. Those who believe in their use say credit checks indicate whether the potential employee exercised good judgment. Others are challenging the relevance of a credit check to positions like lifeguard or customer service where it is far from the skills required to be able to do the job. Not only has it become a discrimination issue, it has acquired a sense of urgency in an economy with high unemployment, where often those who need jobs the most are turned down based on their credit check.
Any index used in a punitive manner is bound to be discriminatory. Even if it reveals a problem in the history of a given employee, oughtn’t people to be entitled to second chances?