The question Koch Industries no longer asks applicants
Koch Industries -- one of the country's biggest private companies -- is now among a growing list of U.S. corporations that have opted to remove questions about criminal pasts from its job applications.
The so-called "ban the box" movement calls on companies to hold off until potential employees are being interviewed or have tentative job offers before asking whether they have a criminal record.
"As a large United States-based manufacturing company that employs 60,000 American workers we shouldn't be rejecting people at the very start of the hiring process who may otherwise be capable and qualified, and want an opportunity to work hard," Mark Holden, the company's general counsel, said in a statement.
The company began implementing the change in policy last month, and follows the same decision by companies including Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY).
"The fact that more and more of our nation's major employers--including a company like Koch Industries that is synonymous with conservative politics--are choosing to embrace fair-chance hiring policies shows that this is an idea with broad appeal whose time has come," Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), said Monday in a release.
According to the NELP, nearly one in three adults in the United States has an arrest or conviction record that would show up on a routine background check.