$100 to Start: The Case for Paid Interviews and the End of -

07/07/2025

$100 to Start: The Case for Paid Interviews and the End of Exploitative Hiring

Why Every Interview Should Be Paid and How It Ends a Broken Labor System

We’ve normalized unpaid interviews for far too long. It’s become a ritual of modern employment: show up, dress professionally, give your best, and leave with nothing—sometimes not even a callback. But time is not free . Energy is not free. And dignity should never be optional. It’s time we recognize that the hiring process itself has become an invisible pipeline of exploitation. And it’s time we end it.

We are proposing something radical in its fairness: every job interview in the United States should be paid. Not just for big corporations. Not just for high-skill jobs. Every interview. $100 minimum. Non-taxable. No exceptions.

Why? Because companies have turned hiring into a tool for profit and control—abusing the labor pool without ever offering employment.

The Exploitation Cycle Hiding in Plain Sight

Behind the job postings and polished LinkedIn pages lies a hidden truth: many companies have built their business models on a steady churn of workers.

They:

- Overhire knowing most new employees will quit or be pushed out within 90 days

- Repeatedly interview candidates without intent to hire

- Use interview projects or test tasks to extract ideas or work samples without compensation

- Avoid hiring long-term workers to dodge raises, benefits, or legal protections

- Lay off and rehire in waves to suppress labor costs while inflating productivity metrics

This isn't just inefficient — it’s predatory. And it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable: working-class Americans, people of color, single parents, the disabled, and those reentering the workforce. These people often pay real costs to attend interviews — childcare, transit, lost wages — and walk away with nothing.

The modern hiring process isn’t just broken. It’s become a machine that feeds off desperation.

Paid Interviews Change the Power Dynamic

Paying for interviews does something revolutionary: it forces companies to value your time as much as their own.

A $100 payment says:

- We take your time seriously

- We intend to hire fairly and transparently

- We don’t see you as disposable

It eliminates “ghost interviews” — where companies collect resumes, conduct interviews, and never hire anyone, just to test the market. It forces employers to slow down, evaluate candidates with intention, and stop wasting people's time.

When something costs money, it must be treated with care. When interviews cost companies $100 per candidate, they will reconsider every redundant round, every unpaid test project, and every interview for a job they don’t plan to fill.

Ending the High-Turnover Model That Hurts Us All

High turnover isn’t just a nuisance — it’s a business model.

Some industries rely on cycling through low-wage workers:

- To avoid offering benefits

- To avoid raises that come with seniority

- To keep workers fearful, compliant, and replaceable

This model keeps people poor, keeps morale low, and keeps productivity just good enough to extract profit — but never good enough to thrive.

If interviews are paid, turnover becomes expensive. If a company burns through 50 new hires a month, they’ll be forced to account for 50 paid interviews — every month.

Suddenly, retention matters. Suddenly, employee well-being matters. Suddenly, treating workers with respect is a better business strategy than using them up and throwing them away.

Tax-Free for Workers, Deductible for Business

To make this fair for all, we’re also proposing:

- Tax-exempt interview compensation for workers

- 100% deductible interview costs for businesses

- Federal reimbursement support for small businesses with under 10 employees

This isn’t about punishing employers — it’s about realigning priorities. If a business can afford to advertise a job, it can afford to respect the people applying.

Is This the Only Way to Make Corporations Respect Workers?

It shouldn’t be. But right now — it might be.

Let’s be honest: too many companies will not put workers first unless it costs them not to. Decades of deregulation, corporate lobbying, and shareholder obsession have taught companies how to externalize costs and internalize profit — with workers bearing the burden.

When labor is free and replaceable, exploitation is inevitable.

Paid interviews challenge that logic.

They signal a new economy where human time is not a throwaway commodity.

They reveal companies that over-interview and under-hire.

They expose discrimination — because now there’s a paper trail showing who was interviewed, who was paid, and who was passed over.

They lift the bar of dignity — for everyone.

What Comes Next?

We will introducing the Fair Interview & Equitable Hiring Act (FIEHA) to Congress. It requires:

- $100 minimum payment for all interviews

- No taxation on interview payments for workers

- Strict enforcement with fines for violators

- Public accountability for companies abusing the process

It’s simple. It’s fair. It changes everything.

If you’ve ever been through round after round of interviews with no callback — this bill is for you. If you’ve ever had to choose between paying for gas or showing up for a job interview — this bill is for you. If you’ve ever felt like your time and effort weren’t worth anything to a company — this bill is for you.

Because they asked for your time — and now, they’re going to pay for it.

Executive Order: Download

Legislation Proposal : Download

🧩 Building Accountability into the System: A New Role for the IRS and SSA

If we’re serious about ending exploitation in hiring, we must go beyond punishment—we must build accountability into the systems we already use .

That’s why we’re proposing that the $100 interview payment become part of a federal verification process , tied directly to employment eligibility checks already run by the IRS and Social Security Administration (SSA).

Here’s how it would work:

- When an employer runs a new hire through the employment verification system (as they already must to validate a Social Security Number), a new required field appears:

“Did you pay the applicant $100 interview compensation?”

- The employer must check “Yes” and upload or log the payment.

- The applicant receives a secure link via a federal portal to confirm they were paid.

- If they weren’t, they can report it with a few clicks.

- If they were, the system logs confirmation and keeps a record.

- The Department of Labor and IRS can now generate real-time, anonymized data sets , showing:

- How many applicants are being paid fairly

- Which industries or companies show patterns of nonpayment

- If race, gender, or age groups are being disproportionately interviewed but not hired—or not compensated

This is not surveillance . This is data justice . For the first time in history, we would have a digital trail that connects hiring behavior to real-world equity—and gives job seekers a voice in that system.

No more guesswork. No more hidden discrimination. No more companies exploiting time and labor without accountability.

This integrated system would also power a national hiring fairness dashboard , accessible to the public, where we can see:

- Industries with high or low interview compensation rates

- States or cities doing it right—and those failing workers

- A list of certified employers leading with dignity

It’s not just about stopping abuse. It’s about shifting the entire culture of employment from secrecy to transparency, from extraction to respect.

If we can track every dollar on our taxes, we can track whether someone was paid for showing up to a job interview.

This is how we build a future that works for everyone.

Vincent Cordova Presidential Candidate | People First Platform

📞 (350) 229-1046

📧 info@cordova2028.com

🌐 cordova2028.com

$100 to start the case for paid interviews