EEOC v. Morgan Stanley
Resolved Case
Fortune Society v. Macy’s
Fortune Society v. Macy’s, brought on behalf of The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that facilitates community reentry for people with criminal records, dealt with alleged violations of civil rights laws that bar disparate impact discrimination in the hiring process.
The case also alleged that Macy’s violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s protections against using criminal history information in consumer reports against applicants without their knowledge.
In 2015, New York City passed the FCA, which helped ensure that individuals with criminal history records are evaluated fairly during the hiring process. In particular, Black and Latino job applicants are typically disproportionately impacted by criminal history screens because of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
In filing the suit, Fortune and plaintiff Jenetta Rolfer sought to change a screening policy that they alleged resulted in a disproportionate number of otherwise qualified Black and Latinx job applicants and employees being denied employment or terminated due to their criminal background histories, including for minor or very old convictions that are unrelated to the positions at issue.
Ms. Rolfer, a Black professional, was hired to work at a Macy’s Credit Granting Department but was abruptly terminated for a misdemeanor conviction stemming from a decade-old traffic-related incident.
Reflecting on her experience, Ms. Rolfer said, “I was excited to work for Macy’s. I was qualified and had the experience to do the job well and it was a great opportunity for me and my family. I was devastated to be fired over information in my background check that is unrelated to my ability to be a productive employee.”
Macy’s is one of the largest retailers in the U.S., with subsidiaries including Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury. The company employs approximately 90,000 workers across the U.S.
In less than a year, a settlement agreement was forged, which affirmed a commitment by Fortune, Outten & Golden, the NAACP and Youth Represent to helping workers turn a corner on their past. As part of the agreement, Macy’s hired an expert to review its criminal history screening policies to ensure that they provide economic opportunities for qualified applicants and employees.
Framing the Issue
- Roughly one in three adults in the United States—about 80 million people—has a criminal record, according the National Employment Law Project.
- People with criminal records form a surprisingly large part of the population seeking work—almost half the men in the labor pool. In total, more than 25 percent of workers in the active workforce have at least one prior conviction. (RAND)
- Black Americans are disproportionately incarcerated, comprising 37% of individuals behind bars even though they account for just 13% of the nationwide population, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
- People who interact with the criminal justice system are more likely to be poor and Black, the Brennan Center for Justice found.
- One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to be sentenced to prison at some point in their life, compared to one in six Latino boys and one in 17 white boys, according to the NAACP and an analysis of Department of Justice data published in the Prison Journal.
- This general trend persists even after researchers control for background factors, such as parental marriage rates, education, and wealth. For example, black men who grew up in the top 1% of household incomes are incarcerated at the same rate as white men who grew up in families making $36,000 per year.
- To remedy the disparate impact effect, 36 States and over 150 cities and counties have implemented “Ban the Box” policies that remove conviction and arrest questions from job applications and delay background checks until later in the hiring process.
- Having a job has been shown to reduce recidivism, and individuals are less likely to commit crimes when they have stable, full-time employment. (Brookings)
