New York has a strong policy toward preventing discrimination based on prior criminal convictions and its progressive policy outlook should encouraged. In 2007 a report concluded that New York employees were largely unfamiliar with State laws regulating an employer’s use of prior criminal convictions for employment-related decisions, and in response, the legislature amended Section 296 of New York Executive Law to require employers to post and disseminate information regarding a job applicant’s or current employee’s rights with respect to an employer’s use of prior criminal convictions. With one in five adults having a criminal record in the United States, legislation such as this is vital to keeping the work force in New York strong.