Rupert Murdoch's Marketwatch removed comments about Warren
So-called "credit guru and Harvard law professor" replies about credit scores and pre-employment screening
| By Greg Fisher
Employers do not use credit scores because they cannot even get them.
Despite that, yesterday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) published a social media message that states
Credit scores shouldn't determine your job status. Support Elizabeth Warren's new bill.
my.elizabethwarren.comBecome a citizen cosponsor of Elizabeth Warren's bill to stop employers from using credit scores in job applications.
In April of 2008, the three largest national consumer reporting agencies all stated that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes. Their statements are published on the website www.creditscoring.com.
Since then, the false claim that employers use credit scores has been repeated over and over. Many of those inaccurate statements are also documented on creditscoring.com.
In July of 2008, an article at MarketWatch.com stated, "Credit-score use by employers is growing rapidly; up to 70% of all employers according to Warren."
Described in the piece as "credit guru and Harvard law professor," Warren was listed in the cc: address section of an email to the author of the article.
On July 17, 2008, Warren (from a harvard.edu email address) replied
There must be some mistake. I didn't write anything, so I'm not sure what this is about. But hundreds of academic and news reports document the fact that credit scores are provided for pre-employment screening. The employee signs a release as part of a job application, and the credit bureau provides the report. The attached is just one of many, many reports discussing this practice.
ew
The attachment was "WORKING PAPER NO. 05-13, A CENTURY OF CONSUMER CREDIT REPORTING IN AMERICA," 2005, the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Asked about the work, the author of that paper replied that it "is silent on the question of whether credit scores are being used in employment decisions."
A discussion occurred in the comments section of the MarketWatch.com web page:
creditscoring.com
To: Jennifer Openshaw ([email address])
From: creditscoring.com
Subject: Credit score, employers
Date: 7/17/08
cc: Elizabeth Warren, newsroom@marketwatch.com
Your story, "The 15-minute tip: Who's watching? It's not just creditors tracking you; here are five others on your tail" is the #1 result in Yahoo! News, Google News, and AOL News.
You wrote, "Credit-score use by employers is growing rapidly; up to 70% of all employers according to Warren."
However, representatives from the main three national consumer reporting agencies say that they do not provide credit scores for pre-employment screening. See http://creditscoring.com/influence/government/employment.htm .
Will you make a correction?
raggedclaw
Will you stop lying?
creditscoring.com
"'We do not score for employment reports,' says Maxine Sweet, a spokeswoman for the Experian credit bureau."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/OPINION03/709150334/1308
Name an employer who uses credit scores in pre-employment screening.
creditscoring.comraggedclaw
Creditscoring Dot Com: The United States Government. And, don't hand me some c*** about what you folks say, I know. Been there.
Elizabeth Warren replied to my email and said that "hundreds of academic and news reports document the fact that credit scores are provided for pre-employment screening." She cited a paper written by a Federal Reserve senior economist.
The economist replied that he made no statement in the paper "suggesting employers are using credit scores (in contrast to credit reports) to make employment decisions."
What part of the federal government obtained a credit score about you? How did you find out?
All of the comments were deleted.