If you have five or more employees and at least one works eight hours a week in San Francisco, this is for you. The City amended its Fair Chance Ordinance (FCO) effective August 10, 2026, and if your hiring paperwork or background check process hasn’t been reviewed recently, now is the time.
The basic rule hasn’t changed: you cannot ask about arrest or conviction history until after a conditional offer, and there’s a long list of records you can never consider, including arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction, dismissed or expunged convictions, juvenile records, and convictions over seven years old. You’re also required to say in job postings that qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered, and to post the official FCO notice at every San Francisco worksite you control.
What’s new is a specific protection: employers can no longer hold an out-of-state conviction or unresolved arrest against someone if the underlying conduct is legal in California, including convictions or arrests tied to abortion-related healthcare, drag performances, gender-affirming care, or spontaneous abortion. If it would have been legal here, it can’t count against them.
We see employers get tripped up two ways: assuming their statewide-compliant process automatically covers San Francisco’s stricter rules, or having good policies on paper that hiring managers were never actually trained on.
Our advice is to check your job postings, offer templates, and background check process against the updated rules, confirm your notice is posted, and make sure your interviewers know what they can and can’t ask. Reach out if you want a second set of eyes on any of it.
