Colorado is one of the states where the federal picture is the smaller half of the answer. Four separate state statutes restrict what an employer may ask for, when it may ask, and what it may use, and they are enforced by the state's own Division of Labor Standards and Statistics rather than by a federal agency. The Fair Credit Reporting Act still applies on top of all of them. This page sets out each statute, what it stops and what it leaves open.
Credit history: the Colorado Employment Opportunity Act
The Employment Opportunity Act prevents an employer from requesting or using credit information in employment decisions for certain employees and applicants in Colorado, as the state's own labour department puts it, and it is enforced by complaint to the Division. The practical consequence for a screening programme is that a credit check cannot be a standard line in your package here: it has to be justified for the particular role before it is ordered, and buying it across the board and deciding per role afterwards is the mistake. The FCRA machinery is unaffected where a check is lawful, so the standalone disclosure, the written authorisation and the adverse action sequence all still apply.
Criminal history: the Chance to Compete Act, Colorado's ban the box
Under the Chance to Compete Act an employer may not ask about an applicant's criminal history on an initial job application, and may not state in an application or an advertisement that a person with a criminal history may not apply. The state frames it as giving people with records a meaningful chance to compete while protecting the employer's ability to make whatever hiring decision it thinks right, and that is the useful way to read it: the restriction is on the timing and the wording, not on the decision. For a high-volume process the risk is structural rather than deliberate, because an application form or a job advert written once and used everywhere is where a breach gets repeated at scale.
Age information: the Job Application Fairness Act
Effective 1 July 2024, the Job Application Fairness Act restricts an employer from asking about age-related information on an initial job application, with limited exceptions where an age requirement rests on a legal or safety need. It names the fields specifically: date of birth, graduation dates and dates of attendance at an educational institution may not be requested. And when an employer asks for additional application materials it has to tell applicants they may redact age-related information from them. That last requirement is the one screening programmes miss, because it is a notice obligation rather than a field to delete.
Personal social media: the Social Media and the Workplace Law
The Social Media and the Workplace Law prohibits an employer from accessing an employee's or applicant's personal social media accounts. Specifically it may not require disclosure of a username or password, require that the person add anyone to an account, or suggest or require a change to an account's privacy settings. None of that restricts what is already public, which is what a compliant social media screening product searches, so the effect on a screening programme is to draw the line at the account door rather than to stop the search: read what is public through a provider that filters protected characteristics, and never ask for access to anything else.
Questions people ask about colorado background check laws
Can I run a credit check on a Colorado applicant?
Only where it is justified for that role. The Employment Opportunity Act stops an employer requesting or using credit information in employment decisions for certain employees and applicants, so the question has to be answered role by role before the check is ordered rather than after the report arrives. Where it is lawful the FCRA duties apply unchanged.
When may I ask about criminal history in Colorado?
Not on the initial application, and not by saying in the application or the advert that people with records may not apply. After that stage the Chance to Compete Act does not tell you what decision to reach, so the practical fix is to take the question off the form and out of the advert and keep the adjudication criteria you can defend.
What can an application form no longer ask for?
Age-identifying information on an initial application: date of birth, graduation dates and dates of attendance at an educational institution, under the Job Application Fairness Act since 1 July 2024. There are limited exceptions where an age requirement rests on a legal or safety need, and when you ask for further materials you have to tell the applicant they may redact age information from them.
Does Colorado stop social media screening?
No, it stops access. An employer may not require a username or password, require that somebody add anyone to an account, or press for a change to privacy settings. Public content is not covered, so a provider-run search of public posts with protected characteristics filtered out remains available; asking the candidate to let you in does not.
Who enforces these in Colorado?
The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, by written complaint, with its own complaint form for each of the four statutes. That is a different route from an FCRA claim and it can run alongside one, so a badly drafted application form can be a state matter and a federal one at the same time.