There’s no question that internships—paid or unpaid—provide college students with priceless career experience. University students all across the country, including myself, are willing to sacrifice two to four months of receiving monetary compensation for hard work at a company they would potentially like to work for post-graduation, weighing the experience and networking opportunities they gain through interning against receiving payment. However, have employers gone too far when it comes to the work they request of interns? Are interns working too many hours or benefitting a company at the same level of paid employees?
Recent lawsuits reveal that unpaid interns are beginning to fight back. Within the past three years, law firm Outten & Golden filed Class Action Complaints against Conde Nast, Fox Searchlight, NBCUniversal and the Hearst Corporation on behalf of former interns. These complaints focused on overworking the interns for longer hours than required/necessary and on the lack of monetary compensation for interns’ work, specifically work the interns produced that greatly benefitted the employer versus just the intern.
A recent article entitled “A Shocking Number of Unpaid Internships Could Be Illegal” from businessinsider.com printed the qualifications for legal unpaid internships.
“Here are the six criteria from the Department of Labor, all of which an unpaid internship must pass in order to be legal:
- The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
- The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
- The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.
- The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
- The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
- The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.”
Aside from the problems associated with the legality of unpaid internships, an interesting question for employers is how seriously they take their interns. Are companies willing to invest in the future of their company by paying all interns? Are these internships seen as a “trial run” or a training period for future company employees, or are interns meant to help employees with their own work/do work for employees? Either way, companies should clearly communicate the work all interns will do during their internships. That way, interns will know what they are getting into so they can make an informed decision about applying for, and accepting, certain internships. Once students know exactly what is required of them, they can decide if the work a company is asking of them deserves payment or not. If the internship work does not match the “compensation” (whether that means money, college credit or nothing) in the opinion of the potential intern, he or she can decide whether to seek other internship opportunities.
In a perfect world, we’d all be paid for everything that we do. Yet climbing the ladder to success isn’t perfect. As college students, we may have to give up earning money for a few months in order to intern, and then earn money after we graduate with solid internship experience under our belts. Yet if you feel you are being taken advantage of as an intern, speak up. There’s no time like the present for change…don’t be afraid to talk about your grievances! In the end, it all comes down to your personal values and a sense of self-respect. Demand what you deserve, but know whatever you choose to do will “pay” off in the end.
Sources & Further Reading:
–http://www.businessinsider.com/is-my-unpaid-internship-illegal-2013-6