South Carolina technical recruiting and hiring rules
South Carolina's cleared market is Charleston, whose aerospace industry is anchored by Boeing's 787 production campus and whose port is among the largest container ports in the country, with the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester region hosting more than 1,900 technology companies according to its development alliance.
Requisitions run from non-cleared manufacturing and port technology engineering to Secret and Top Secret for the contractors supporting the region's federal installations.
South Carolina regulates little at the posting stage and settles the at-will question by statute. The rules below are current at the time of writing, each with its source.
Hiring rules in South Carolina that matter to employers
Summaries are general information current at the time of writing and are no substitute for counsel.
- Pay transparency in job postings
- South Carolina has no statewide pay transparency or salary range disclosure law; the Society for Human Resource Management's state-by-state list shows only local salary history rules for Columbia and Richland County.
- Salary history
- There is no statewide ban. The City of Columbia's Ordinance 2019-022, enacted August 6, 2019, bars the city itself from asking about wage and salary history as a condition of employment, and Richland County adopted a similar rule for county hiring on May 23, 2019; neither applies to private employers.
- Fair-chance hiring
- South Carolina does not appear in the National Employment Law Project's guide to states with statewide ban-the-box policies. Columbia's ordinance bars the city from asking about criminal history before a conditional offer, again for the city's own hiring only.
- Non-compete agreements
- The firm found no South Carolina statute governing employee non-compete agreements; enforceability rests on court decisions, and employers should take advice on the current standard before relying on a covenant.
- At-will employment
- S.C. Code Section 41-1-110 provides that a handbook, personnel manual, policy or other document issued by an employer after June 30, 2004 does not create an express or implied contract of employment if it is conspicuously disclaimed, with the disclaimer in underlined capital letters on the first page and signed by the employee; the bill that produced the section affirmed the at-will nature of employment in the state.
- E-Verify
- The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation states that amendments to the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act require all employers to enroll in E-Verify from January 1, 2012 and to verify the legal status of all new employees within three business days, citing Sections 41-8-10 and 41-8-30, with random audits of private employers.
Metro markets in South Carolina
South Carolina's metro page covers Charleston and North Charleston.
Industries hiring in South Carolina
Specialties in demand in South Carolina
Questions about hiring in South Carolina
Does every Charleston employer have to use E-Verify?
Yes, according to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation: all employers have been required to enroll since January 1, 2012 and to verify new employees within three business days, and the department conducts random audits of private employers.
What does a handbook disclaimer need to say in South Carolina?
Section 41-1-110 provides that a handbook or policy document does not create a contract of employment if it is conspicuously disclaimed, and it requires the disclaimer to be in underlined capital letters on the first page and signed by the employee. Employers placing contract workers in the state through Recruiters Workforce receive the firm's own documents, which follow that rule.