No progress made on ‘Ban the box’

Gov. Tony Evers included a so-called “ban the box” provision in his 2019-20 budget, but it was stripped out by Republicans in the Legislature, so at that time we rated the measure Stalled. Evers proposed the change again in his 2021-23 budget.  

“Currently, 13 states and the District of Columbia prohibit private employers from asking applicants to identify whether they have criminal records, including Illinois and Minnesota,” Britt Cudaback, Evers’ spokesperson, told us in March 2021. “The governor’s budget would prevent a prospective employer from requesting conviction information from a job applicant before the applicant receives a job interview. This would apply, too, for crimes that have been expunged.”

In 2016, then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, signed the 2015 Wisconsin Act 150, which incorporated a “ban the box” provision as part of a Civil Service reform measure. 

But that applied to state hires through the civil service process.

Ever’s proposal would apply to all employers in the state. 

And while he made an effort on it, the bottom line is this goal has not been met in his first term – and with the Legislature out of session for the year, there’s no path to getting it passed this year.

We rate this Promise Broken.