In the past few years, news sources and various research organizations discovered that over half of college students residing in off-campus locations live below the poverty line. While many economists have long blamed the rising cost of tuition as a major cause behind this harrowing statistic, unpaid internships have recently been labeled as another main culprit.
Proponents of unpaid internships compare them to apprenticeships, hailing the “training” as beneficial for both company and intern. Many unpaid interns speak highly of their resume experience, highlighting that they received relevant work experience that wasn’t available at school and obtained positive networking experience, recommendations or references from their intern supervisors. These types of internships are also a good alternative to volunteering or working in retail and similar part-time jobs, as they are usually specific to the career field an intern plans to pursue. Not all unpaid internships are necessarily unpaid, either – you may still be able to receive a stipend for living expenses.
Unpaid internships can also be good for students on the other end of the spectrum, who aren’t sure what field they’d like to go into. Their income won’t be tied to being a successful intern, freeing up many to explore their career options and determine what area is best for them. Depending on the college they attend, some students are also able to gain college credit hours for completing internships which gives flexibility schedule-wise.
On the other hand, critics are quick to label unpaid internships as forced labor. They require students to spend months at a time without any income, regardless of the amount of work they put in. This situation is worsened by the fact that many popular unpaid internships are located in prominent cities such as Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles, where the cost of living continues to rise steadily higher. What’s more, entire professions have effectively isolated their hiring process, limiting employees to exclusively those who have intern experience with their company. This means that low-income students are often precluded from obtaining employment, simply due to their inability to work for free at a prior time. It also means that the skills students pay to refine in college are exploited by a lack of compensation.
Unpaid internships may not be worth your while in the long run, either. Many students expect to find a job more quickly after graduation with their intern experience. But a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that the amount of students who find employment after college and have interned in the past is only 2% higher than those who didn’t intern. In fact, working for free might mean working for less money in the future as well. Disturbingly enough, the NACE also found that those who completed unpaid internships were more likely to get paid less in their future jobs than those who had paid internships – or even none at all.
It may not matter if you love or hate the concept of unpaid internships. They’ve nearly become inevitable as American businesses have shifted towards hiring international students that are willing to work for far less money (if any), so it doesn’t make economic sense to pay domestic students for the same work. But do their benefits outweigh alleged harms? Should students continue to bolster what the Atlantic calls “an unfortunate economic reality”? These are questions you’ll have to answer for yourself.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/unpaid-internships-b…
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/in-defense-of-unpaid…