Quantifying Fair Chance Policy Implementation and Employer Engagement

Fair-chance hiring policies aim to expand employment opportunities for individuals with criminal records by reducing legal and systemic barriers to work. These policies include Ban-the-Box, occupational licensing reforms, record-sealing, certificates of rehabilitation, and liability protections. Despite growing adoption, their impact remains difficult to quantify due to limited data. To address this, we (1) introduce standardized metrics to assess the presence and strength of supportive policies, and the extent of legal barriers across all 50 states; and (2) measure employer engagement in fair-chance hiring by analyzing job postings. These metrics enable state-level comparisons, providing data-driven tools to advance the study of fair-chance employment.