Does Costco hire people with felonies?

What Costco has said

We found no Costco statement on hiring people with criminal records, and Costco is not on the Second Chance Business Coalition member list. Costco's job applicant privacy notice says it runs background checks through screening providers when applicants authorize them. Costco's published drug- and alcohol-free workplace policy says all final applicants must pass a drug test before an unconditional offer or starting work, and it treats marijuana as a prohibited drug even where state law allows it, except where local or state law requires otherwise.

• Local fair-chance notice

  Costco hosts a San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance notice for applicants seeking work in San Francisco. This is a legally required notice, not a company policy statement.¹

Does Costco do background checks?

Costco runs background checks. Costco's applicant privacy notice (effective January 1, 2026) says it collects reference and background check information from third parties, including background screening providers, when the applicant authorizes it. It doesn't say what the check covers, so we don't list criminal history as confirmed, and it doesn't say when the check happens.²

• Drug screen

• How long a background check takes

Does Costco drug test?

Costco drug tests applicants. Costco's drug- and alcohol-free workplace policy says all final applicants, including rehires (with narrow exceptions for recent layoffs and seasonal returns), must pass a drug test before getting an unconditional offer or starting work. The policy counts marijuana as a prohibited drug even where state law allows it, except where local or state law requires otherwise. The posted policy has no date.^2,3

Rules for specific jobs

• All warehouse and hourly positions

  Costco's careers resources page says some positions require a skills or business-related test and that Costco uses E-Verify nationwide. It says online applications expire after 90 days.⁴

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