Does Sheetz hire people with felonies?

What Sheetz has said

Sheetz's careers FAQ says a criminal record does not automatically disqualify an applicant and that each background is reviewed case by case. After a job offer, new hires schedule a drug and background screening. In 2024 the EEOC sued Sheetz, alleging its criminal-history screening had a racially disparate impact; the EEOC later moved to drop its claims, and a job applicant asked the court to let him continue the case. Sheetz denied the allegations.

• Careers FAQ

  The Sheetz careers FAQ answers the question of whether a criminal background is an automatic disqualifier with no, and says backgrounds are reviewed case by case.¹

• EEOC lawsuit

  On April 18, 2024, the EEOC announced it had sued Sheetz, Inc., Sheetz Distribution Services, LLC and CLI Transport, LP (U.S. EEOC v. Sheetz, Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-01123-JKB, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland). The EEOC alleged that Sheetz screened all applicants for criminal convictions and denied jobs based on them, and that this disproportionately excluded Black, Native American/Alaska Native and multiracial applicants, in violation of Title VII's disparate-impact provisions. The suit did not allege a racial motive.²

• EEOC lawsuit status

  The case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. In 2025, after a presidential executive order on disparate-impact enforcement, the EEOC moved to dismiss its own claims. In June 2025 a job applicant, Kenni Miller, moved to intervene and continue the case; the EEOC supported that request and Sheetz opposed it. The latest reports we could open (August 2025) say the judge had not yet ruled on intervention. We could not find a final ruling, settlement or dismissal as of October 21, 2026.³

• Court filing

  In its 2025 answer to the EEOC complaint, as reported by the Altoona Mirror, Sheetz acknowledged that it considers criminal history in hiring, said it gets that information from application questions and from a third-party background report requested after a conditional offer, and denied that its practices discriminate.⁴

Does Sheetz do background checks?

Sheetz runs background checks after a job offer. Sheetz's careers FAQ says that after an offer, new hires complete onboarding paperwork and schedule a drug and background screening before getting a start date. In court filings reported by the Altoona Mirror, Sheetz said it considers criminal history from the application and from a third-party background report ordered after a conditional offer; it did not name the vendor in what we read.^1,4

• Criminal history

How long it takes: Usually a few days; some cases take longer (per the Sheetz careers FAQ).¹

• How long a background check takes

Does Sheetz drug test?

Sheetz drug tests applicants. The careers FAQ describes a drug and background screening as the standard next step after any job offer and lists no exceptions. It refers questions about the drug test policy to Sheetz at 1-800-487-5444; the policy itself is not published.¹

Rules for specific jobs

• All store roles

  The careers FAQ says applicants must be at least 16 to work at Sheetz.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.^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