Does Whole Foods Market hire people with felonies?

What Whole Foods Market has said

Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon since 2017, has not published a policy on hiring people with criminal records. Its US candidate privacy notice lists background checks and screening among the reasons it collects applicant information. Whole Foods has not published when the check happens, what it covers, or whether it drug tests, and Amazon's own hiring policies are not stated to apply to Whole Foods.

• Parent company

  Amazon and Whole Foods Market announced on August 24, 2017 that Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods Market would close on August 28, 2017.¹

Does Whole Foods Market do background checks?

Whole Foods Market runs background checks. The Whole Foods candidate privacy notice for the US and Canada says it collects background check information and uses applicant data for background checks and screening. It does not say which roles, when, or what records are reviewed.²

• How long a background check takes

Does Whole Foods Market drug test?

Whole Foods Market 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.

Rules for specific jobs

• Store support (corporate) roles

  The Whole Foods careers site sends store support job seekers to Amazon's job site (amazon.jobs), so those roles may follow Amazon's hiring process; Whole Foods does not explain the arrangement.³

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.^5,6,7
• 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."^5,6
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^5,8
• 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.^9,10
• 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).^9,11

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.^5,8,12
• 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.¹³
• 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.^14,15

See whether you can clear your record in your state