From Job Offer to First Day: Offers, Conditions, Background Checks and References, Explained

An offer is the employer saying it will hire you on stated terms. What it binds depends on whether the employment has a specified term.

In California the default is at-will employment. Labor Code section 2922 says employment “having no specified term, may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other,” and that “employment for a specified term means an employment for a period greater than one month”². At-will means either side can end the job without having to give a reason, on notice. It does not remove the limits on firing for a protected reason; the Department of Labor’s termination page says that outside protected grounds, a termination “is subject only to any private contract between the employer and employee or a labor contract,” and lists age, race, color, religion, sex, ethnic or national origin, disability, veteran status and whistleblower status among the protected grounds⁵.

So an offer that sets a fixed term is a different thing from an offer that sets none. Under Labor Code sections 2924 and 2925, an employment for a specified term may be ended by the employer for a willful breach of duty, habitual neglect or continued incapacity, and by the employee if the employer willfully or permanently fails to meet its obligations⁶⁷. Whether a given letter creates a term is a question about its words, which is the subject of offer letter vs employment contract.

Good to know The California pay notice in Step 6 is a separate document with its own required contents. An offer letter that states a salary does not take the place of it¹.

A conditional (or contingent) offer depends on the candidate meeting requirements before starting work. No agency page defines the term or lists the conditions an employer may use, so the useful way to read a list of conditions is by the rules that govern each one:

If an offer is withdrawn based on medical information, the EEOC says the employer must show the reason was job-related and consistent with business necessity¹⁰. More on how conditions work, and what can void an offer, is on the contingent job offer page.

The federal steps

When an employer hires a company to produce a background report, the report is a “consumer report” and the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies. The statute, 15 U.S.C. 1681b(b), says the employer cannot get the report unless two things happen first: “a clear and conspicuous disclosure has been made in writing to the consumer at any time before the report is procured,” in “a document that consists solely of the disclosure,” and the person “has authorized in writing” the report³.

The Federal Trade Commission’s consumer page breaks the process into four steps⁸:

1. Disclosure and authorization. The employer tells you in writing, in a standalone document, that it could use a report to decide on hiring, and gets your written permission before the check is run. You can refuse, but the FTC notes you may not get the job.
2. Pre-adverse action. Before rejecting you based on the report, the employer gives you a copy of it and a “Summary of Rights.”
3. Adverse action notice. After the decision, the employer tells you, “verbally, in writing, or electronically,” the reporting company’s name, address and phone number, and that the company did not make the decision.
4. Free copy and dispute. You can ask the reporting company for an additional free report “within 60 days of the employer’s decision,” and dispute inaccurate or incomplete information directly with it.

The statute’s wording for step 2 is that “before taking any adverse action based in whole or in part on the report,” the employer “shall provide to the consumer” a copy of the report and a written description of the person’s rights³. Neither the FTC’s business guidance nor the EEOC’s page sets a waiting period between that notice and the decision; the FTC says only that advance notice gives the person “the opportunity to review the report and tell you if it is correct”¹¹¹². The EEOC adds that the disclosure “can’t be in an employment application”¹².

What California adds for criminal history

California’s Fair Chance Act applies to public employers and to private employers with five or more employees, and covers applicants as well as employees who are promoted or otherwise undergoing a check⁴. Under the Civil Rights Department’s fact sheet (June 2025), most covered employers cannot ask about conviction history on an application, cannot run a background check or internet search for criminal history before a conditional offer, and cannot post statements such as “No Felons”⁴.

After a conditional offer, the employer may look, but certain information stays off limits: arrests that did not result in conviction (with limited exceptions), sealed, dismissed or expunged convictions, diversion cases, and, per the fact sheet, “conviction history that is more than seven years old” measured from disposition, release or parole⁴.

If the employer wants to withdraw the offer over a conviction, it must send a written preliminary notice listing the convictions, enclosing the report, stating the right to respond, and giving a response deadline. After considering any response, it sends a final written notice that includes the right to file a complaint with the Civil Rights Department⁴. The full sequence is on the Fair Chance Act page.

Sources disagree The response window when the person disputes the report’s accuracy is worded two ways. The Civil Rights Department’s fact sheet says “at least five business days” and “at least ten days” if the person is challenging accuracy, without saying “business” for the ten⁴. The statute, as reproduced on a mirror of Government Code section 12952, gives five business days plus “five additional business days” for a written dispute¹³. Ten business days is the longer of the two readings, so it is the one to plan around.

For the notice itself and the response, see the pre-adverse action notice page; for correcting a wrong report, disputing a background check error.

The Society for Human Resource Management, a professional association, says “there are no federal laws that address what an employer can or can’t say about a worker”¹⁴; no agency page states this either way. In California the rules sit in a handful of Civil and Labor Code sections.

Civil Code section 47(c) gives a qualified privilege to a statement about an applicant’s job performance or qualifications when it is “based on credible evidence and made without malice by a current or former employer,” made to a prospective employer on that employer’s request¹⁵. Labor Code section 1050 makes it a misdemeanor to prevent or attempt to prevent a former employee from getting work “by any misrepresentation,” and section 1054 gives the person harmed a civil action for treble damages¹⁶¹⁷. Section 1053 allows a truthful statement about why an employee was discharged or left, “when specially requested”¹⁸.

Whether a former employer can say you were fired is therefore a matter of truth, request and malice, not of a single rule. It is covered in what a former employer can say about you, including the three states, Missouri, Minnesota and Maine, where an employee can request the reason for discharge in writing.

Some questions are limited by rule at any stage. The ones the sources address:

The pay scale is “a good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position upon hire,” and the Labor Commissioner’s Office says a link or QR code to a separate scale does not satisfy the posting rule²⁰²¹. The complete picture, including the recruiter question, is on salary history and pay scale in California.

California Labor Code section 2810.5 requires a written notice at hire. The Labor Commissioner’s Office says all private sector employers are covered unless a listed exception applies; the exceptions include employees exempt from overtime and certain employees under a qualifying collective bargaining agreement¹.

The notice is due at the time of hiring and “in no event later than the first day services are performed by the employee,” in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment information¹. The notice covers the rate or rates of pay and their basis, including overtime rates; any meal or lodging allowances claimed against minimum wage; the regular payday; the employer’s name and any “doing business as” names; its physical and mailing addresses and phone number; and the name, address and phone number of the workers’ compensation carrier¹.

If those terms change, the employer must give written notice “within seven (7) calendar days after the time of the changes.” No new notice is needed if the change appears on a timely wage statement or another legally required writing within the seven days¹. The pay notice is a separate item from the pay stub described on the California pay stub requirements page.

Once the conditions are met, the paperwork starts. The sequence and what each form does is on New-Hire Paperwork, Explained, with the two forms most new hires ask about on Form I-9: which documents to bring and how to fill out Form W-4.