Is it ever OK for a prospective employer to ask a candidate to do work for free?
A reader we’re calling Rosmerta is currently a finalist for several jobs. Two of the prospective employers have asked her to create materials for projects the companies might otherwise have had an employee complete. One company offered to compensate her for the work. The other expected her to complete the assignment without pay. Rosmerta wonders if it was wrong for the second company to ask for her time and effort without compensation.
t’s not unusual for job candidates to provide materials that demonstrate they can do the job and have the necessary skills. It’s reasonable for employers to want to see how applicants might approach the kind of work they’d be expected to do.
But it’s wrong for an employer to go beyond reasonably evaluating a prospective employee’s skills and instead use the situation as an opportunity to get unpaid labor.
It’s fair, for example, to ask for a short writing sample or an analysis of a problem. If the goal is to understand how a candidate works, rather than to have them create materials the company would otherwise have to pay for, then the request is reasonable. Prospective employers should remember that candidates are not yet paid employees.
If a company asks a candidate to develop a marketing campaign, draft detailed proposals or produce materials that could be put into practice, it should expect to compensate the candidate for their time and expertise. Once significant time, expertise and originality are required, it’s difficult to justify not paying for that work.
In Rosmerta’s experience, one company recognized the value of what it was asking by offering compensation. The other did not. It would be reasonable for Rosmerta to use that difference to gauge how each company approaches fairness and respect.
Candidates do not have to accept the premise that their time and expertise aren’t worth anything to a prospective employer. At a minimum, Rosmerta should ask whether her work will be used solely to evaluate her or if it could be used for actual company projects. She can also propose alternatives, such as providing examples of prior work or explaining her approach in an interview. If what a company asks her to do resembles work she would typically be paid for, she can ask about compensation or decline the request.
Employers should also remember that while they are evaluating candidates, candidates are evaluating them. How a company treats people during the interview process sends a message about whether it’s the kind of place someone would want to work.
Rosmerta shouldn’t automatically rule out the company that made the unpaid request. But she should weigh that request—and any offer that follows—carefully. The company that offered to pay her demonstrated respect for her time and expertise. The one that didn’t sent a different message.
Employers are entitled to assess candidates, but the right thing is not to benefit from their labor without acknowledgment or compensation. When companies cross that line, candidates like Rosmerta are right to question it—and to let the answer guide their decisions.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2026 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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