Sarcasm aside, this is exactly why we make ours as short as possible in duration. You don't want to filter out people with valuable time.
Actually, yes! Erik Bernhardsson, the CTO at Better.com who is cited in the article a few times, does exactly that for finalist candidates that they ask to provide a significant work sample. I think that's 100% appropriate. But that said, a work sample doesn't necessarily have to be something that takes hours on end either.
ayy, that's awesome if they pay candidates for significant work samples. i think there's some discussion to be had about what's significant. anything more than 1.5-2hours in my opinion. an hour or two is how long an interview might take in any profession. asking me to work unpaid for 4 or 8 hours (one project: 3 days!) is excessive. maybe call it the "half-day" test. is it a half-day of work? if so pay. if not, then you can do that once during an entire interview process.
Aptible compensates for the amount of time we want you to spend on a work sample.