Jobs for Felons in Oregon

Oregon's ban-the-box law covers private and public employers. An employer cannot make you disclose a conviction on the job application or before the first interview. If there is no interview, it cannot make you disclose one before a conditional job offer. After that point the employer can still consider your record when it decides.

The rule does not apply where another law requires a record check, to law enforcement agencies, to employers in the criminal justice system, or to volunteer positions. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) enforces it, so that is where a complaint goes.

Portland goes further. Employers with 6 or more employees, for jobs done mostly in Portland, cannot look at your criminal history until after a conditional job offer. Even then they cannot hold an arrest without a conviction against you, unless charges are still pending.

If they pull the offer over your record, they must have assessed it against the job, and they must tell you in writing which convictions they relied on. Jobs working with children, elderly people, people with disabilities or people in recovery have their own rules.

Under federal law, a background check company can report a conviction no matter how old it is. Arrests that did not lead to a conviction generally drop off after seven years (the limit does not apply to jobs paying $75,000 a year or more). We found no Oregon law that shortens that for convictions. If an old conviction shows up and you think it should not have, ask legal aid.

Oregon calls clearing a record a “set aside.” Once you have completed your sentence and are off supervision, the waits are: Class B felony, 7 years; Class C felony, 5 years; Class A misdemeanor, 3 years; Class B or C misdemeanor or a violation, 1 year. Each is counted from the conviction or your release from prison, whichever is later.

Class C felonies, most misdemeanors and violations, and Class B felonies that are not “person felonies” can be set aside. Class A felonies are not on the list, and some crimes are excluded outright, including most sex crimes and certain crimes against children or older adults. Which Class B felonies count as person felonies is set by a state commission rule, so check whether yours is one with legal aid.

Arrests and charges that never led to a conviction can also be set aside, at any time after an acquittal or dismissal.

If you are eligible, the court must grant the set aside unless the prosecutor objects and the court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that your behavior since the conviction creates a risk to public safety. There is no court filing fee for the motion. You do pay the Oregon State Police for a criminal record check. The court's set-aside forms page has the current steps.

Once the order is entered, the law treats the conviction as if it never happened and the record is sealed. You can answer questions about it that way, including on a job application.

An Oregon licensing board cannot deny, suspend or revoke a license only because you were convicted of a crime. It can weigh how the facts of the conviction relate to the work. Before you start training or an apprenticeship, you can ask the board whether your conviction will keep you from getting the license, so you do not spend a year training for a door that stays shut. The board may charge a reasonable fee. Teacher licenses follow separate rules.

Federal EEOC guidance from 2012 warns employers that blanket “no felons” policies can violate Title VII, but since April 2025 a federal executive order has told agencies to deprioritize this kind of case. In Oregon, the state ban-the-box law (enforced by BOLI) and Portland's rules do much of that work at the state and city level.