Columbia, South Carolina Ban the Box law WILL NOT APPLY to Private Employers

We recently blogged about the Columbia, South Carolina Ban the Box law. According to the law, the ban the box section will apply to “Employer” and the definition of Employer in the law is: City employers, private employers, and government contractors.

However, the heading of the law did not mention private employers, which caused some confusion. Because of the confusion, First Advantage reached out to our outside counsel Seyfarth Shaw, for more clarification. Seyfarth was able to speak with the City Attorney for Columbia, South Carolina who confirmed that the Columbia, SC ban the box law was not intended to apply to anyone but city employers and not to private employers.

The City Attorney apologized for any confusion found in the statute and for the “sloppy drafting” of the law and stated he would speak with the Mayor to have the Ordinance amended, however this may not occur until November. He also assured that there would be no enforcement actions against private employers.