IS IT LAWFUL TO ASK... OR UNLAWFUL?
Test Your Awareness of Lawful and Unlawful Job Interview Questions.

Evaluate the 15 interview questions below and indicate which questions are lawful to ask a candidate and which ones are not lawful to ask a candidate for employment.

1. Do you have any friends or relatives working for our company?

2. Do you speak English fluently?

3. What does your spouse do?

4. Do you have children?

5. Have you been discharged from the military service in other than an honorable discharge?

6. Do you have any problems working with mostly men? (question asked of a woman in a position where there are mostly men working)

7. Can you give me some personal references, like your pastor?

8. Are you available to work Saturdays and Sundays?

9. What organizations do you belong to?

10. We can only hire people 18 years of age and older. How old are you?

11. Have you ever filed for bankruptcy?

12. What do you do in your spare time?

13. Have you ever been fired from a job?

14. Do you have adequate provisions for childcare so as to be available for work during the 3:00 to 12:00 shift?

15. I noticed your accent – what part of the country are you from?

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Answers – total up the ones they got correct and let them
know what percent they answered correctly.

Here are the correct answers for each question:

1. Do you have any friends or relatives working for our company? UNLAWFUL! The part about friends is unlawful. The part about relatives is lawful ONLY if the company has an Anti-Nepotism policy!

2. Do you speak English fluently? UNLAWFUL unless you can substantiate that fluency in spoken English is a bona-fide job requirement.

3. What does your spouse do? UNLAWFUL because there is no job relevancy.

4. Do you have children? UNLAWFUL because there is no job relevancy.

5. Have you been discharged from the military service in other than an honorable discharge? UNLAWFUL. Because there are Medical and Other discharges, you may only ask if they were dishonorably discharged

6. Do you have any problems working with mostly men? (question asked of a woman in a position where there are mostly men working). UNLAWFUL. This question is never lawful to ask.

7. Can you give me some personal references, like your pastor? UNLAWFUL. The part about the pastor is never lawful, unless applying for a position in a church and it can be proved that a pastor’s reference is a bona-fide job requirement.

8. Are you available to work Saturdays and Sundays? UNLAWFUL unless working on Sundays is a bona-fide job requirement.

9. What organizations do you belong to? UNLAWFUL because the answer may reveal information about race, creed, etc.

10. We can only hire people 18 years of age and older. How old are you? UNLAWFUL as asked. Lawful: “Are you 18 years or older?”

11. Have you ever filed for bankruptcy? UNLAWFUL. This question is never lawful to ask.

12. What do you do in your spare time? UNLAWFUL. This question is never lawful to ask.

13. Have you ever been fired from a job? LAWFUL!

14. Do you have adequate provisions for childcare so as to be available for work during the 3:00 to 12:00 shift? UNLAWFUL to ever ask about childcare.

15. I noticed your accent – what part of the country are you from? UNLAWFUL. This question is never lawful to ask.