From CNN Money:

Job seekers in New York City can now rest assured that their credit history won’t impact their employment prospects. The New York City Council passed legislation that bans most employers from discriminating against job applicants and current workers based on credit history.

This is an interesting development for a few reasons. First, the original intent of credit scoring was to identify a borrower’s chances of defaulting on the loan. Under the law, companies were really only supposed to be able to check your credit score for the purpose of extending you credit (i. e. loaning you money). Now of course, credit checks are used for everything from apartment leases to job applications.

The article continues:

According to a 2012 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 47% of employers in the U.S. run credit background checks on potential hires.

Mike Aitken, vice president of government affairs at SHRM, said employers are being more selective when it comes to running credit checks because they are so costly…Several states and cities have passed similar legislation, including Nevada, California and Maryland.

Other jurisdictions will likely follow suit. Let’s not pretend that credit score has no bearing on job performance. If you are conscientious with your finances, you are likely to be conscientious in your job. There will be outliers and exceptions, but all else being equal, most companies would rather hire someone who is on top of their finances.

If your credit sucks like mine used to, don’t wait for the laws to change. Improve your credit right now and jump in front of all the other job applicants. This is just another in the long list of opportunities that credit repair can open for you.