For Employers

Fair-Chance Hiring in Arizona: A Primer for HR

Fair-chance hiring (sometimes called "ban the box") expands the candidate pool and reduces hiring bias. Arizona's legal framework is permissive but inconsistent — here's what HR should know.

What "fair-chance hiring" means

Fair-chance hiring is a recruiting practice that delays asking about criminal history until later in the application process — typically after a conditional offer is made. The idea is that candidates with records get evaluated on their qualifications first, and conviction history is considered in context (relevance to the job, time since, rehabilitation evidence).

Arizona's legal landscape

Arizona does NOT have a statewide ban-the-box law for private employers. Individual jurisdictions have their own rules:

• Phoenix. City government employers cannot ask about conviction history on initial applications for city jobs (since 2017).
• Tucson. Restricts city government from asking about conviction history pre-interview.
• Pima County. Has a similar policy for county employees.

Private employers in Arizona generally have full discretion to ask about conviction history at any point — but federal EEOC guidance and disparate-impact concerns still apply.

Federal framework — EEOC guidance

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has long held that blanket "no felons" policies can constitute disparate-impact discrimination because conviction rates differ by race in ways unrelated to job qualifications. The EEOC's guidance (2012, updated periodically) recommends that employers using conviction history conduct an "individualized assessment" considering:

• The nature and gravity of the offense
• The time elapsed since the offense or completion of sentence
• The nature of the job sought

Why Arizona employers should care

Beyond compliance, the business case is strong:

1. Larger talent pool. 1 in 3 Americans has a criminal record. Filtering them out shrinks your candidate pool by ~30%.
2. Lower turnover. Studies consistently show employees with criminal records have equal or lower turnover than those without.
3. Tax credits. The federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) provides up to $2,400 per employee with a felony conviction.
4. Public sentiment. Many customers and prospective employees factor fair-chance hiring into their assessment of which businesses to support.

Practical implementation

A modest fair-chance approach in Arizona:

1. Remove conviction-history questions from initial applications.
2. Conduct background checks only after extending a conditional offer.
3. If a conviction surfaces, conduct an individualized assessment — don't auto-rescind.
4. Document the basis for any decision to rescind based on conviction history.
5. Consider Arizona-specific factors: a candidate with a set-aside conviction has had a court determine they've earned a second chance.

Many Arizonans with old convictions have already sealed or set aside their records under § 13-911 or § 13-905. Background checks for these candidates often won't even surface the underlying offense — the legal system has already resolved the question of whether the candidate has earned consideration.

Resources

For employer-facing context on what set-aside actually means, see our companion post: What Arizona Employers Should Know About Set-Aside Convictions.