The Background Check Seven Year Rule, and How It Actually Varies by State

The seven year rule in the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how long a background check can report non-conviction information, such as arrests that never led to a conviction, civil lawsuits, and civil judgments. It does not put a federal time limit on criminal convictions. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c, a conviction can be reported indefinitely unless a specific state law says otherwise. That single distinction, non-conviction records capped at seven years versus convictions with no federal cap, is the most commonly misunderstood point in background screening, and it is the reason a "seven year rule" answer that ignores state law is usually incomplete.

This article is general information for employers and job seekers and is not legal advice. Screening programs should be reviewed with qualified counsel before rollout.

What 15 U.S.C. 1681c Actually Restricts

Section 1681c of the FCRA sets out what a consumer reporting agency may not include in a report once too much time has passed. Two different clocks apply. Bankruptcies fall off after ten years from the date of the order for relief or adjudication. A longer list of items falls off after seven years, or when the applicable statute of limitations expires, whichever is longer. That seven year list includes civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest, along with paid tax liens, accounts sent to collection or charged to profit and loss, and, in the statute's own words, "any other adverse item of information, other than records of convictions of crimes," that predates the report by more than seven years.

Read that phrase carefully. The statute carves criminal convictions out of the seven year exclusion list. Congress wrote the seven year rule to expire old arrest records, old civil judgments, and other stale negative information, not to expire a criminal conviction. That is why a screening report can lawfully show a fifteen year old felony conviction under federal law alone, while it generally cannot show an eight year old arrest that was dismissed or never charged.

The Salary Exemption in 1681c(b)

What the Exemption Does

Subsection (b) removes the seven year limits described above when a consumer report is being used for the employment of an individual at an annual salary that equals, or may reasonably be expected to equal, $75,000 or more. For roles at or above that threshold, the items that would otherwise fall off after seven years, arrest records, civil judgments, and the rest, can still be reported regardless of age.

Why It Rarely Matters for Convictions

Because criminal convictions were never inside the seven year exclusion to begin with, the salary exemption mostly affects non-conviction and civil information for higher paid roles. It does not "unlock" older convictions, since federal law never locked them in the first place. Employers sometimes conflate the two, assuming the $75,000 threshold is what allows reporting of old convictions. It is not. Convictions are a federal non-issue at any salary level. The exemption is about arrests, judgments, liens, and collections, not about conviction records.

Why States Are Where the Real Limits Live

Because federal law leaves conviction reporting open ended, a number of states have passed their own consumer reporting statutes that put a seven year (or similar) limit on how far back a conviction can be reported, on top of the federal rules for non-conviction records. These state statutes generally work the same way the FCRA does structurally: a base time limit measured from the date of disposition, release, or parole, plus one or more carve outs for larger transactions or higher salaries where the limit does not apply. The dollar thresholds, and whether a carve out exists at all, differ by state, which is exactly why a national employer cannot rely on one federal answer.

Verified State Conviction Reporting Limits

The states below were confirmed against statutory text or official state code sources. Only states with a verifiable limit are listed. Employers should treat this as a starting reference, not a substitute for checking current statutory text before building a screening policy.

Hawaii Uses a Different Structure

Hawaii does not run its limit through a consumer reporting statute at all. Instead, Hawaii Revised Statutes 378-2.5 restricts what an employer itself may consider, capping the lookback at the most recent seven years for felony convictions and the most recent five years for misdemeanor convictions, with periods of incarceration excluded from that count. It is a direct limit on employer decision making rather than on what a screening report can show, which makes Hawaii worth flagging separately rather than folding into the standard table above.

Texas Is a Gray Area, Not a Clean Yes

Texas Business and Commerce Code 20.05 is frequently listed online as a seven year conviction reporting state, and the statute does contain that seven year language. But the FCRA's preemption clause exempted state consumer reporting laws already in effect when Congress removed the federal conviction time limit in 1996, and Texas's statute took effect in 1997, after that cutoff date. Screening compliance sources point to this timing, along with case law such as Simon v. DIRECTV, as grounds that Texas's seven year conviction limit is preempted and not enforceable against reporting agencies today. Given that dispute, Texas is left out of the verified table above rather than presented as a settled seven year state.

What This Means for Employers Hiring Across State Lines

A company hiring in Montana, Kansas, and Florida at the same time is not running one policy, it is running at least two, because Montana has no salary carve out at all while Kansas exempts roles paying $20,000 or more, and Florida has no state limit beyond federal law. The relevant state is generally the one where the applicant lives and will work, not the state where the reporting agency or the employer's headquarters sits, since that is where the applicant is protected by that state's consumer protection statute. Certain regulated sectors add another layer on top of this. Employers in childcare or education roles are frequently required to run a full, unrestricted criminal history search regardless of any state seven year limit that would otherwise apply, because the position involves direct responsibility for children or vulnerable populations. A national hiring policy that applies a single lookback rule everywhere will either over restrict in states with no limit or, more often, under restrict in states with a strict one.

How Compliant Screeners Apply the Strictest Applicable Rule

The practical answer screening providers use is to apply whichever rule is most protective of the applicant for that specific report: federal law, the applicant's state law, and any sector specific requirement, compared side by side, with the strictest one controlling what actually appears. That means a Montana applicant's report follows Montana's flat seven year limit with no exceptions, a Kansas applicant's report follows the $20,000 salary carve out, and a Texas applicant's report is built around federal law rather than the state's disputed statute. Sector specific screening components run on their own separate logic entirely. Exclusion and sanctions searches, for example, are not conviction lookbacks at all; our explainer on FACIS levels covers how those checks work and why they surface differently than a standard criminal history search. Reveal Background's screening plans are built to apply the correct combination of federal, state, and sector rules automatically rather than leaving that layering to the employer to sort out manually; current plan options are on our pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Does the seven year rule apply to criminal convictions?

Under federal law, no. The FCRA's seven year exclusion at 15 U.S.C. 1681c applies to non-conviction records such as arrests that did not result in conviction, civil suits, and civil judgments. Criminal convictions have no federal reporting time limit and can be reported indefinitely unless a state law sets its own limit.

What is the FCRA salary exemption under 1681c(b)?

Section 1681c(b) removes the seven year limits on non-conviction information, arrest records, civil judgments, and similar items, when a report is used for employment at an annual salary that is or may reasonably be expected to be $75,000 or more. It does not affect conviction reporting, since convictions were never subject to the federal seven year limit in the first place.

Do all states follow the same seven year rule for conviction reporting?

No. States including California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, and Washington set their own statutory limits on how far back a conviction can be reported, and the exceptions vary. Montana and California apply their limit with no or minimal salary based carve out, while several other states lift the limit for higher salary roles, typically between $20,000 and $25,000 depending on the state. Hawaii uses a different structure entirely, limiting employer consideration of convictions to seven years for felonies and five years for misdemeanors.

Can an employer legally see a conviction from more than seven years ago?

In most states, yes, because federal law does not restrict conviction age and most states have no statute limiting it either. In states with their own conviction reporting limit, such as Montana, Kansas, or New York, an older conviction may be excluded from the report unless a state specific carve out applies, such as a qualifying salary level or transaction size.