Fair Chance Employers

What a fair chance employer is

A fair chance employer evaluates applicants on their skills and current readiness instead of screening out anyone with a record. In practice that means the conviction question comes after a conditional offer, a background check is reviewed against the job rather than used as an automatic no, and supervision requirements like check-ins or curfews are scheduled around rather than treated as a disqualifier. Roughly 80 million Americans have a criminal record, so this is a very large share of the available workforce.

Major national fair chance employers

The companies below are members of the Second Chance Business Coalition, a group of large private-sector employers publicly committed to second-chance hiring and advancement. Membership is a company-level commitment — hiring policies still vary by role, location, and legal requirements for the position.

Source: the Second Chance Business Coalition member list at secondchancebusinesscoalition.org.

How to spot a fair chance employer

Most fair-chance jobs are not at household-name companies. They are at local shops, contractors, warehouses, and restaurants that never publish a policy. These signals tell you a smaller employer is open to hiring people with a record:

• The application does not ask about convictions before a conditional offer (a “ban the box” policy).
• The job post says background checks are reviewed case by case, or mentions the nature and age of the offense.
• The employer claims the Work Opportunity Tax Credit or uses the Federal Bonding Program.
• The company partners with reentry, workforce, or trade-training organizations.
• Openings are posted on fair-chance job boards instead of screened out up front.

Finding fair chance employers hiring near you

Every job on Second Chance Work is posted by an employer who chose a fair-chance board on purpose. You can filter openings by state and city, and the application includes a private section for probation or parole conditions — check-in days, curfews, travel limits, drug screen readiness — that only that employer's hiring manager sees, so schedules get worked out before day one instead of after.

Becoming a fair chance employer

If you are hiring, the cost of entry is low. Move the conviction question until after a conditional offer, decide in advance which offenses genuinely conflict with the job, and ask about supervision requirements so you can build the schedule around them. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit and the Federal Bonding Program exist specifically to offset the perceived risk. Post the role here and it reaches people who are ready to work and already screened themselves in.