Does Aramark hire people with felonies?

What Aramark has said

Aramark runs IN2WORK, a training program for incarcerated people that it says is meant to help them find work after release, and in an October 2025 press release its IN2WORK director called Aramark a second chance employer. Aramark's careers site says applicants get background check information after completing offer paperwork, and its U.S. workforce privacy notice says it may run background, credit and driving-history checks and drug tests where employment law allows. Aramark hasn't published how it weighs criminal records.

• Company statement

  In an October 21, 2025 release announcing an IN2WORK culinary track, Aramark's IN2WORK director called Aramark a second chance employer that works with other fair opportunity businesses.¹

• Job posting for fair-chance hiring

  An Aramark posting for an IN2WORK Reentry Manager (Tampa, FL) says the role develops fair chance hiring initiatives and sources candidates entering the workforce after incarceration.²

• Follows a fair-chance law

  Aramark's equal opportunity page says it complies with Philadelphia's Fair Chance Hiring Law.³

Does Aramark do background checks?

Aramark runs background checks after a job offer. Aramark's careers site says a recruiter extends an offer first, and after the offer paperwork is done the applicant gets background check information; work starts after the check is passed. Its privacy notice says checks may include background, credit and anti-fraud checks, and lists criminal history and driving history among data it collects, limited to what employment law allows. It doesn't say which roles get which checks.^4,5

• Criminal history
• Credit
• Driving record

• How long a background check takes

Does Aramark drug test?

Aramark hasn't published a drug testing policy. Aramark's privacy notice lists drug tests among checks it may conduct where employment law allows, and drug testing among data it collects, but Aramark hasn't published which jobs are tested.⁵

Hiring programs

• IN2WORK

  Aramark's training program for incarcerated people, meant to help them find work after release, with pre-release check-ins and post-release follow-up. In October 2025 Aramark said it had more than 16,000 graduates and added a culinary track (food safety, nutrition and intro to culinary arts) piloted in the Kansas Department of Corrections, plus an IN2WORK.org site with resources for graduates. Aramark's release doesn't say how many graduates Aramark itself hired.¹

Your rights, and how far back a check can go

• Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer must get your written permission before it gets a background report about you from a background screening company.^6,7,8
• Before an employer decides not to hire, keep, or promote you because of something in a background report, it must give you a copy of the report and a document called "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act."^6,7
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^6,9
• The FCRA's seven-year limit does not apply to criminal convictions, so under federal law a conviction can show up on a background report no matter how old it is.^10,11
• Under the FCRA, background and credit reports generally cannot include arrest records, civil lawsuits, or civil judgments that are more than seven years old (or older than the statute of limitations, if that is longer).^10,12

Your full background check rights

Before you apply

• You can ask a background screening company for the information it has on you, and the CFPB keeps a list of consumer reporting companies, including employment screening companies, with their contact details.^6,9,13
• According to the Clean Slate Initiative, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that meet its criteria for automatically clearing eligible records: Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, and Missouri, plus D.C.¹⁴
• The Federal Bonding Program, run by the U.S. Department of Labor, lets states give employers free fidelity bonds that protect them against losses from a newly hired worker's dishonest acts, for job seekers with past justice involvement or in recovery from substance use.^15,16

See whether you can clear your record in your state