Does McDonald's hire people with felonies?

What McDonald's has said

McDonald's Corporation is a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition and was named at its 2021 launch. Its U.S. applicant privacy statement, which covers McDonald's corporate jobs and company-owned restaurants, says McDonald's may run background checks, including credit and criminal background checks, and may collect drug and alcohol test results. That statement says it does not apply to franchisee-owned restaurants, which follow their own practices, and McDonald's says rehire policies vary between company-owned and franchised restaurants.

• Second Chance Business Coalition member

  McDonald's is listed as a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition. The listing is for the corporation; franchisees are independent owners.¹

• Founding member of the Second Chance Business Coalition

  McDonald's was among the 29 companies the coalition named as having joined when it launched on April 26, 2021.²

Does McDonald's do background checks?

McDonald's runs background checks. For McDonald's corporate jobs and company-owned restaurants, McDonald's applicant privacy statement (updated May 7, 2026) says it may carry out background checks through outside service providers and may collect results of credit, criminal and education background checks and drug and alcohol testing. It doesn't say when checks happen or how results are weighed. Franchise restaurants are not covered by this statement.^3,4

• Criminal history
• Credit
• Education
• Drug screen

• How long a background check takes

Does McDonald's drug test?

McDonald's hasn't published a drug testing policy. McDonald's applicant privacy statement lists drug and alcohol testing results among information it may collect for corporate and company-owned restaurant applicants, but McDonald's hasn't published which jobs, if any, require a test. Franchisees set their own practices.³

Rules for specific jobs

• Crew and managers at franchisee-owned restaurants

  McDonald's applicant privacy statement says it doesn't apply to franchisees or people applying to franchisees, that each franchisee handles applicant information under its own practices, and that job postings say whether McDonald's or a franchisee is hiring. Check the posting to see who the employer is.³

• Former employees seeking rehire

  McDonald's says rehire eligibility depends on the location, because policies vary between company-owned restaurants and those independently owned and operated by franchisees.⁵

• Corporate jobs and company-owned (McOpCo) restaurants

  These applicants are covered by McDonald's own applicant privacy statement, which describes possible criminal, credit and education background checks and drug and alcohol testing.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.^9,10,11
• 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."^9,10
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^9,12
• 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.^13,14
• 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).^13,15

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.^9,12,16
• 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.¹⁷
• 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.^18,19

See whether you can clear your record in your state