NYT: Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043


By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: April 2, 2010

With job openings scarce for young people, the number of unpaid internships has climbed in recent years, leading federal and state regulators to worry that more employers are illegally using such internships for free labor.

Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide.

Many regulators say that violations are widespread, but that it is unusually hard to mount a major enforcement effort because interns are often afraid to file complaints. Many fear they will become known as troublemakers in their chosen field, endangering their chances with a potential future employer.

The Labor Department says it is cracking down on firms that fail to pay interns properly and expanding efforts to educate companies, colleges and students on the law regarding internships.


Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times

Brittany Berckes, a senior at Amherst, noted that some students could not afford to work free.


“If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department’s wage and hour division.

Ms. Leppink said many employers failed to pay even though their internships did not comply with the six federal legal criteria that must be satisfied for internships to be unpaid. Among those criteria are that the internship should be similar to the training given in a vocational school or academic institution, that the intern does not displace regular paid workers and that the employer “derives no immediate advantage” from the intern’s activities — in other words, it’s largely a benevolent contribution to the intern.

FULL 2 page story at link.

[ChicagoSuz219]

1. Sometimes they get school credit for it...

...that's not as bad.

[fasttense]

2. It's just another way of screening out the poor.

Only rich students can afford free internships. My daughter has to work to be able to afford college. She can NOT afford taking a full time job for free. I've always felt unpaid intern positions were a way of giving the rich a leg up on the employment competition.

[Berry Cool]

3. They are.

Unpaid internships are the norm in publishing; they always have been because there are way more wannabe journalists than there are jobs. Also, the bulk of publishing internships are in Manhattan. This ensures that the college graduates with the best-looking resumes upon graduation are all kids who can afford to take a free internship and live with Mom and Dad in or near Manhattan (commuting into the city every day) while doing so. These same grads can also best afford to take the low-paying entry-level jobs offered in the industry to kids fresh out of school. This helps to perpetuate a media in which all the best jobs go to the sons and daughters of the wealthy East Coast elite--not only journalism-school grads but Ivy Leaguers.