If I ask applicants to demonstrate their job skills during an interview, am I required to pay them for that time?

Whether it’s data entry, carrying heavy boxes up a steep ladder or teaching a water aerobics class at a gym, observing candidates demonstrating how they would actually do the job can help you select the right individual. Depending on what the applicants are asked to do during an interview, and how much time it takes, you may need to pay them for their time.

Determining Factors

Whether time spent demonstrating job skills (also called “try-out time”) must be paid depends on three factors, according to the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

The period of time is reasonable under the circumstances. The amount of time needed to demonstrate a particular skill will depend on the facts of each case.

For example, it would take far less time to demonstrate how boxes would be safely carried up a ladder than it would to show the full range of exercises that might be taught in an hour-long water aerobics class.

According to the DLSE, the rate of pay for the job usually can be used as a guide to determine the amount of time necessary for a tryout, with higher-paying jobs typically justifying more time for demonstrating skills.

The time is used for testing skills as opposed to training. An employer may wish to use try-out time to teach an applicant how to do a task or use a computer program, and then ask the applicant to demonstrate the skills s/he has learned. Because part of the time was used for training the applicant (which will then benefit the employer), that time does not qualify as try-out time. Any training the employer wishes to do generally must be done after the applicant is hired.

There is no productivity derived from the work performed by the prospective employee. During try-out time, an applicant is usually asked to demonstrate how he or she would perform a task, such as entering data into a computer. If the data entered by the applicant is actually data the employer would otherwise have an employee enter, then the prospective employer is deriving productivity from the work performed by the applicant and the time does not qualify as try-out time.

Employers should be certain the tasks performed during try-out time are not work that is of any benefit to the employer. For example, the employer might fill boxes with bricks that simulate the weight of the boxes carried by employees, or have an applicant teach a short version of the water aerobics class to a few current gym employees who would not normally pay for a class.​