Does Sam's Club hire people with felonies?

What Sam's Club has said

Sam's Club is one of Walmart Inc.'s three reportable business segments, and Sam's Club jobs are filled through Walmart's careers site. Sam's Club is not listed on its own as a Second Chance Business Coalition member; its parent, Walmart, is, and Walmart's fair-chance statements do not name Sam's Club. The Sam's Club applicant privacy notice says applicants sign a Fair Credit Reporting Act authorization before a background check, which may cover criminal, employment and education history and credit standing.

• Parent company is a Second Chance Business Coalition member

  Walmart, Sam's Club's parent company, is listed as a Second Chance Business Coalition member. Sam's Club does not have its own listing.¹

• Parent company statement

  Walmart's associate opportunity document (updated May 3, 2024) says Walmart supports fair-chance hiring for formerly incarcerated people and was one of the first retailers to remove the criminal-history question from initial job applications. The document does not mention Sam's Club by name.²

• Parent company

  Walmart's fiscal 2026 annual report lists Sam's Club U.S. as one of three reportable segments and describes it as a membership-only warehouse club with 601 clubs in 44 states and Puerto Rico.³

Does Sam's Club do background checks?

Sam's Club runs background checks. The Sam's Club Applicant Privacy Notice says Walmart gets the applicant's consent on a Fair Credit Reporting Act authorization and disclosure form before requesting a background check, which may include criminal, employment and education history and credit standing, from unnamed employment background agencies. It does not say whether the check comes before or after an offer.⁴

• Criminal history
• Past jobs
• Education
• Credit

• How long a background check takes

Does Sam's Club drug test?

Sam's Club hasn't published a drug testing policy. Some job postings say whether a test is required, so check the listing for the role you want.

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.^7,8,9
• 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."^7,8
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^7,10
• 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.^11,12
• 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).^11,13

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.^7,10,14
• 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.¹⁵
• 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.^16,17

See whether you can clear your record in your state