<p>Related article:</p>
<p><a href=“Generation i”>The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance;
<p>Note that some have noticed that the prevalence of unpaid internships in some lines of work has the effect of placing additional barriers to entry in front of those from less well off families.</p>
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<p>The industries who practice this are largely protected by the fact that the interns themselves wont sue… They are willing to work for free to get the resume line and the recommendation. </p>
<p>This practice is very industry specific. It is unheard of in IT not to pay interns. Any in-demand occupation is using their intern spots to attract talent, and the last thing they want is to loose candidates because they failed to give them rent money. </p>
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Good. The fairness of unpaid internships has been discussed before, but the legality is something that needs more discussion. I’m pretty vehemently against them, as I’ve personally seen how they give wealthy students a massive leg up in getting into certain careers and graduate programs (e.g. museum work and archaeology). </p>
<p>Many people will continue to support unpaid internships, however, by claiming that organizations will do away with internships altogether rather than pay their interns. </p>
<p>“Any in-demand occupation is using their intern spots to attract talent, and the last thing they want is to loose candidates because they failed to give them rent money.”</p>
<p>That’s not true in an industry where the talent hugely outnumbers the entry-level spots. The entertainment industry is a great example; they’re in such high demand that they could probably fill two thirds of the slots on movie sets without paying if union rules didn’t prevent it. Another is law. Spots in law firms are in high demand right now – something like half of all law school graduates can’t find legal jobs. Candidates are begging for unpaid positions. If you lose one because he finds a paid job, there are plenty more just like him waiting to take his place.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the concept of working and not getting paid. I would rather sit at home and watch Law and Order (or Friends).</p>
<p>you should email your Congressperson and ask… </p>
<p>I bet they (regardless of party) have some unpaid interns.</p>
<p>oldfort, in the case of law graduates, at least, it’s because they have no hope of future paid employment without swallowing the indentured servitude now. With $100k+ in loans on their backs, they do what they think they have to do.</p>
<p>Why would they bother to get a law degree then? D2 is going to have plan B if she can’t get into one of those top law schools that would almost guarantee employment.</p>
<p>The rules are different for government and non-profit organizations. They can have unpaid internships under more circumstances. Here’s a link directly from the US Department of Labor regarding for-profit organizations and the tests for whether an internship must be paid:</p>
<p><a href=“WHD Fact Sheets | U.S. Department of Labor”>http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf</a></p>
<p>People make a lot of bad decisions to go to law school. They do it because they have low information and/or they have too much confidence that they will be in the lucky 10% that finds a legal job coming out of School X.</p>
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<p>Wouldn’t be surprised if that were true, although it is not a reason for supporting the continued prevalence of unpaid internships.</p>
<p>People considering lines of work where the usual entry-level job is an unpaid internship may want to think twice about that line of work – the implication is that job seekers greatly outnumber jobs in that line of work, which is not a good situation for getting a job, keeping a (paid) job, or getting a reasonable pay rate.</p>
<p>My S is a film studies grad who had 3 different internships during his undergrad years. The first, paid, was through another university and followed very strict guidelines. The second I would consider illegal as from his description he learned very little and did menial work as a film librarian. </p>
<p>The third experience which continued for 15 months was quite different. He worked for an independent filmmaker on a very ambitious project. His boss repeatedly told him that he would get paid as soon as the film got its financing ( the boss was being supported mostly by his wife). S says he learned more in the 15 months on that project than all of his classes. When the opportunity for a late acceptance for graduate school came up, the boss wrote him a recommendation and was thrilled when S got his acceptance. Last night, as S walked back to the motel where he is staying, boss called to see how things were going. He gave S more advice on how to network and said that he would give S introductions to some of his contacts as soon as S’s “boot camp” orientation is over. I am very sure that this man will continue his very valuable mentorship of my son.</p>
<p>I do agree that my son’s very worthwhile unpaid internship was only possible because we could afford to support him for the two summers that he was not officially enrolled in classes. I don’t know if S had stayed with the project to the end if he would have gotten paid. His boss has one of the top movies on Hulu so he does have a track record but it is a real gamble in this industry to make a movie without upfront financing. </p>
<p>Ha. Our congressmen and senators have internships galore that are unpaid. They justify it because so much of their staff is volunteer in nature and those internships are for those unpaid positions, allegedly. So we can start right there with the investigations. The muscular dystrophy camp even pays “interns”, sheesh. </p>
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<p>Unless you’ve got lots of funds to put toward law school tuition, Plan A should be getting into a law school that will give her a merit scholarship. That means don’t even consider HY or S. Notre Dame, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Michigan, W&L, and quite a few other really great law schools will give some students huge/full discounts. </p>
<p>The guaranteed employment for coming from a top law school is these days is only for the students at the top of the class. Believe it or not, I have met Harvard Law school grads (presumably not the law review guys) who are scrambling for work.</p>
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<p>Well, reality is that political internships have no shortage of willing unpaid interns, just like many other types of commonly unpaid internships. Any stated justification is just a cover for or sugar-coating of the fact that the market clearing entry level pay rate for that type of job is zero.</p>
<p>Another major source of opportunity (unpaid internship) is the Justice Department. They ‘hire’ recent law grads to be courtroom attorneys. The experience is fantastic, but there is no pay. For a year. Those who can afford to do it almost certainly will benefit from the experience and most are hired after the internship.</p>
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<p>I.e. coming from a wealthy family willing to support you during an unpaid internship is an unstated qualification to entering that line of work.</p>
<p>Well, supporting a kid for a summer does not exactly require wealth. Plenty of kids do unpaid internships who are not wealthy by any definition. </p>
<p>I know a number of top grads from not top law schools that are doing fine as well as a number of grads from top law schools who have not been able to find a job in law. Actually, I know many who are practicing lawyers who were not top students at no name schools doing well. They are tenacious and hungry to work, and intrepid in finding the jobs. That’ s what it often takes. Plus a lot of local law venues cater more to the local law schools than non local low schools despite the rankings and the rank of the student. There are types of jobs in law that are looking for certain types with certain work practices. My brother barely got into law school got into one not even accredited (but got accredidation later), and though it took him some time, became a wildly successful lawyer who now has his own multi million dollar practice and loves his job and company.</p>