Does Taco Bell hire people with felonies?

What Taco Bell has said

Taco Bell's careers site lists jobs at both company-owned and franchised restaurants, and says franchisees are independent employers responsible for their own employment practices. Taco Bell Corp.'s privacy notice for California applicants and employees says it may collect information needed for background checks, drug and alcohol tests and other legally permitted screens, and may ask about criminal and credit records where the law allows. We found no Taco Bell statement on hiring people with criminal records, and Taco Bell is not on the Second Chance Business Coalition member list.

We didn't find a public statement from Taco Bell 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 Taco Bell do background checks?

Taco Bell hasn't said publicly whether it runs background checks. Taco Bell hasn't published a nationwide screening policy. The only Taco Bell screening document we found, Taco Bell Corp.'s privacy notice for California applicants and employees (effective November 15, 2024), says it may collect information needed to complete background checks, drug and/or alcohol tests and other screens permitted by law, names background and credit check providers as sources, and says the company may ask about criminal and credit records only where the law allows. It doesn't say when checks happen or how results are used, it covers California residents only, and it doesn't cover franchise restaurants.¹

• How long a background check takes

Does Taco Bell drug test?

Taco Bell hasn't published a drug testing policy. Taco Bell Corp.'s California applicant and employee privacy notice lists drug and/or alcohol test information among what it collects, but Taco Bell hasn't published which jobs, if any, require a test. Franchisees set their own practices.¹

Rules for specific jobs

• Crew and managers at franchised Taco Bell restaurants

  Taco Bell's careers site says jobs are posted for both corporate and franchised restaurants, that people applying to a franchisee or licensee are not applying to Taco Bell Corp., and that franchisees and licensees are independent employers responsible for their own employment practices. Ask the restaurant's operator about background checks.²

• Company-owned restaurants and corporate jobs (Taco Bell Corp.)

  Taco Bell Corp.'s California applicant and employee notice describes possible background, credit and reference checks and drug or alcohol tests where the law permits. The team member and corporate postings we opened had no screening language. The notice covers California residents only; we found no Taco Bell screening statement for other states.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.^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