Does GameStop hire people with felonies?

What GameStop has said

We found no GameStop statement on hiring people with criminal records, and GameStop is not a Second Chance Business Coalition member. Its candidate privacy policy says background reporting agencies may run background checks on its behalf, that a check may include criminal, employment and education history, and that it will obtain an authorized disclosure before conducting a criminal background check; it doesn't say which applicants are checked. The 67 store and warehouse postings we read don't mention screening, drug testing or how records are treated.

We didn't find a public statement from GameStop about hiring people with records: not on its careers site, in its reports, or in its announcements. That doesn't mean it won't hire you. It means there's nothing on the record to point to.

Does GameStop do background checks?

GameStop hasn't said publicly whether it runs background checks. GameStop's Candidate and Employee Privacy Policy (effective Oct. 15, 2024), which applies to all GameStop job applicants, lists employment-related background screening and checks among the recruiting purposes for which it may collect information, and says background reporting agencies may run background checks on its behalf. It says a background check may include criminal, employment and education history, and that GameStop will obtain an authorized disclosure before conducting a criminal background check. The policy uses 'may' and doesn't say which jobs are checked, when in the process, who the screening company is or how far back it looks, and none of the postings we read mention a check.¹

• How long a background check takes

Does GameStop drug test?

GameStop hasn't published a drug testing policy. None of the 67 GameStop postings we read mention a drug test. The candidate privacy policy mentions pre-employment medical screenings as a purpose for collecting information but doesn't mention drug testing.¹

Rules for specific jobs

• Store, warehouse and corporate jobs

  We read 61 postings from the all-positions board (store managers, assistant managers, keyholders and associates in 23 states) and 6 from the warehouse board (Grapevine, Texas order fulfillment and refurbishment jobs among them). None mentioned a background check, drug test, arrest or conviction records, or fair-chance wording.²

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.^10,11,12
• 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."^10,11
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^10,13
• 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.^14,15
• 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).^14,16

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.^10,13,17
• 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.¹⁸
• 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.^19,20

See whether you can clear your record in your state