Utah Background Checks for Employment: A Complete Guide for 2025

Pre-employment background checks help you as a Utah employer determine whether a candidate is suitable, qualified, and eligible to be hired for a particular position.

While your company may be in an industry that requires background checks on employees, such as health care providers, educators, or other industries that rely on public trust, including a background check as a standard part of your hiring process is prudent in any event.

Before conducting a background check on a potential new hire for your Utah company, it is essential to understand the process that is involved, including the applicable legal requirements, where to get a background check in Utah, categories of information that you might gather, what details to expect in a background check report, and how to efficiently and effectively access and analyze this information within your budget.

iprospectcheck conducts Utah pre-employment background checks for companies located in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, Provo, and many other cities throughout Utah.

Based on our vast experience with providing accurate, complete, and affordable Utah background checks, we have assembled this helpful and informative guide on what you need to know about pre-employment background checks as a Utah employer.

Let’s start now.

What Shows Up on a Background Check in Utah?

The type of information that you are seeking in a Utah background check will vary based on your industry and the nature of the job opening.

For criminal information on a job applicant, you can expect to find the following basic categories of information on a background check report:

• Nature of the criminal offense
• Case filing date
• Case disposition date
• Case disposition
• Some sentencing information, such as the sentencing date and penalties imposed

Other Common Categories of Information on a Utah Pre-Employment Background Check

While criminal history is a major component of an employment background check, additional categories of background information on an applicant may include the following:

• Identity verification
• Past employment verification
• Education verification
• Driving records
• Credit check
• Civil records

Even though these categories of personal information on a job applicant do not involve criminal history, you are still required to obtain prior authorization from the applicant before collecting these records.

Utah Background Check Laws: A Complete Overview for 2025

When it comes to making sure that you are following all legal requirements for pre-employment background checks, you should be familiar with the federal, state, and local laws and regulations that apply.

The potential for these regulations to change and be updated frequently as well as the interplay between federal, state, and local background check restrictions and requirements are why many Utah employers partner with an experienced background check provider like iprospectcheck to ensure compliance and avoid penalties.

Federal Laws and Regulations

Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) protects individuals’ privacy in the information that consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), including background check companies, collect and disseminate.

It also covers employers who use information obtained from background checks.

Under the FCRA, CRAs have a seven-year restriction for reporting the following information when an applicant is considered for a job paying less than $75,000 per year:

• Arrests not resulting in convictions
• Chapter 13 bankruptcies (10 years for Chapter 7)
• Paid tax liens
• Collections
• Civil lawsuits/judgments

Information about an applicant’s convictions, previous employment, and education are not restricted by the FCRA.

When an employer learns negative information about a candidate and decides not to hire them based on a background check report, they must first complete the adverse action steps before making a final adverse hiring decision.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on an applicant’s or employee’s protected characteristics.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is the agency that enforces Title VII, has issued employer guidance about what they should do when they learn an applicant has a criminal conviction on a background check.

Before deciding not to hire the applicant based on that information, the employer should first individually assess the conviction in relation to the job duties and consider how old the conviction is and any evidence of rehabilitation.

Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act (FCA) is a federal ban-the-box law that applies to federal contractors and the federal agencies with which they contract.

Companies seeking federal contracts are forbidden from asking about criminal conviction information until after they have extended conditional job offers.

Federal agencies are not allowed to contract with companies that inquire about criminal history information before making a job offer.

Utah Laws and Regulations on Pre-Employment Background Checks

Ban-the-Box Law

Utah passed a ban-the-box law for public sector employers that was signed by the governor in 2017. Under this law, government employers are not allowed to ask applicants about their criminal histories until after they have interviewed them.

If they do not interview the applicants, they cannot ask about criminal history information until after they extend conditional offers of employment to them.

Criminal Investigations and Technical Services Act

Under Utah Code § 53-10-101 TO § 53-10-606, only a few qualified types of employers can request state criminal history information for applicants.

Most private employers are instead limited to requesting criminal history information by performing FBI background checks.

Employers can ask their employees to request their own criminal records checks or to sign waivers authorizing the state to send this type of information directly to the employer or another third party.

How Can I Conduct Background Checks in Utah?

If you are a qualified employer, you can request background check information from the Utah Department of Public Safety.

However, this option is only available to companies hiring for jobs affecting national security interests, those working with vulnerable adults or children, private companies offering adoption services, and state and local government agencies.

If you are not a qualified employer, you will either have to ask your applicants to get copies of their own criminal background records or sign waivers authorizing these types of records to be sent to you.

If you ask an applicant to request his or her own criminal record, he or she must also submit a set of fingerprints.

You can also check with the Utah Department of Corrections for inmate records. These records include information about an individual’s past or current inmate status and sentencing information.

Asking applicants to conduct their own criminal records checks or trying to look up information on the Utah Department of Corrections will not reveal all of the important information that you need.

You will not see information about out-of-state convictions, misdemeanor convictions that did not result in prison sentences, education information, employment information, and other types of relevant data.

Some employers attempt to conduct their own employment background checks through a do-it-yourself approach. They might ask applicants to complete their own background checks, send requests to multiple state and federal agencies, educational institutions, and past employers, check references, and perform online searches.

However, this approach can take weeks and might reveal information that is inaccurate or that fails to comply with the FCRA, which could potentially expose you to lawsuits.

The best approach is to work with a reliable third-party background check provider like iprospectcheck. We have extensive resources and access to reliable databases. We are able to quickly return the information you need, and we always comply with the FCRA and other relevant state and federal laws.

iprospectcheck: Your Trusted Partner for Fast, Accurate, Compliant Utah Background Checks

As you can see, the process of conducting a compliant, accurate, and efficient Utah background check is quite involved and requires in-depth knowledge of the information sources, applicable laws and regulations, and screening resources.

When you work with iprospectcheck for your employment background check needs, you can be sure that you will receive timely, detailed, and compliant screening reports at an affordable cost.

Another major advantage of trusting iprospectcheck with all of your Utah pre-employment background check needs is that you can rest assured that the data and sensitive information involved will be secured and monitored by our U.S.-based team of experts.

While some other background check vendors may take undisclosed shortcuts in data privacy and security by using offshore operations to save costs, iprospectcheck is committed to preventing any security breaches or mishandling of private data by keeping all of its operations exclusively within the U.S.

Contact iprospectcheck today to learn more about the many background check services we provide to employers like you.

DISCLAIMER: The resources provided here are for educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Consult your counsel if you have legal questions related to your specific practices and compliance with applicable laws.