<p>It's the new cancer plaguing the labor market that employers are rampantly exploiting. Does you child participate in an illegal internship as an unpaid intern doing nothing more than working for free?</p>
<p>Curious about this too , as it is well known to be illegal , but at the same time encouraged by alumni from daughter’s college…I’m wondering where this will lead since it seems her industry just keeps " hiring" interns instead od paid entry level applicants</p>
<p>Kids are easy to manipulate and exploit. Let them take out student loans on their own dime to pay for their own housing, food, and utility costs and offer them a slave job under the guise of an ‘internship’ in order to soak them out of free labor. When they’re time is up just do it to the next naive college student that is a year behind them.</p>
<p>I hate unpaid internships as much as the next parent, but please define what qualifies as an “illegal internship.”</p>
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<p>Probably 95% of the unpaid ‘interships’ out there are illegal:</p>
<p>[Labor</a> and Employment Law Blog: Unpaid Internships - Common but Illegal](<a href=“http://laborlaw.typepad.com/labor_and_employment_law_/2007/11/unpaid-internsh.html]Labor”>http://laborlaw.typepad.com/labor_and_employment_law_/2007/11/unpaid-internsh.html)</p>
<p>Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf</a></p>
<p>Outlines the legal criteria for unpaid internships.</p>
<p>I can’t say legally, but morally, often times the internship doesn’t benefit the employer. Like in physician offices, the student really doesn’t contribute much, but slows down the doc. So when my daughter in HS went to a vet hospital as an “intern”, she was the one who gained from it, and if it were technically illegal, I would have offered to have her pay $10 to the hospital as fees to a vet “course” and not have called it an internship.</p>
<p>We probably should deport them.</p>
<p>mini, you devil :)</p>
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<p>Slowing down an employer isn’t an excuse. I’m sure people who undertake apprenticeships for things such as carpentry, training for electrician, etc. also slow down the person they are working with, however, they still get paid for being on the job.</p>
<p>I have an unpaid internship and I absolutely LOVE it…it’s been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Had no idea it was illegal</p>
<p>Not knowing is no excuse when it comes to illegals. The law is the law. Guatemala or Somalia for you?</p>
<p>I think this calls for extraordinary rendition.</p>
<p>graven, it does matter as the student shadowing a physician is not doing much, if any, actual work and the practice is not likely to derive any benefit from having the student present. One has to be careful not to use the interns for tasks that regular, paid employees are assigned. For example, it’s okay to have them listen/learn how to take a medical history but it’s not okay to have them rooming patients and taking the history alone:</p>
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<p>Just to report on the other side of the issue. S has been an intern with the same company for the past 19 months (including summers). He has been a paid intern for the past 13 months. Last month, when he reached one year as a paid intern, he was informed that he had put in enough hours to qualify for the retirement plan. He does more than minimal, menial tasks & feels he’s learned more at the internship than in alot of his classes. I feel he’s been truly fortunate to have gotten this internship.</p>
<p>Same way I feel about undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>Huh? Since when does an internship need to be paid? D1’s college even has funds to offer kids who are unpaid in a legit opportunities. Part of the idea, to me, is to accrue relevant experience in your field. Something you can put on your early resume. (So, I wouldn’t call shadowing an internship.) I did one at a great museum. One of my kids did one on a casual basis for a public health organization. Priceless.</p>
<p>The LAW is pretty clear:</p>
<p>"In order to qualify as an unpaid internship, the requirement is simple: no work can be performed that is of any benefit at all to the company. That is, you can not deliver mail, sort files, file papers, organize a person’s calendar, conduct market research, write reports, watch television shows and report on them, read scripts, schedule interviews, or any other job that assists the employer in any way in running their business. "</p>
<p>Otherwise it is simply exploitation, just like hiring undocumented immigrants (which might “benefit” them as well).</p>
<p>fwiw
[Are</a> Unpaid Internships Illegal? | One Day, One Internship](<a href=“http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/blog/are-unpaid-internships-illegal/]Are”>http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/blog/are-unpaid-internships-illegal/)
This refers to an older Supreme Court decision.</p>
<p>And: As a rule, the Department of Labor will not consider students to be employees when they are involved in education or training programs that are “designed to provide students with professional experience in the furtherance of their education and training and are academically oriented for their benefit” (Wage and Hour Opinion Letter, Jan. 28, 1988).</p>
<ul>
<li>in the case of a non-profit, seems one could just as easily call them volunteer work and still get the experience on the resume.</li>
</ul>
<p>Adding: <a href=“http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm[/url]”>http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm</a>
I will admit, my perspective is non-profits.</p>
<p>From current (2010) Fair Labor Standards:</p>
<p>The following six criteria must be applied when making this determination:
1.
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;
2.
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3.
The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4.
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;
5.
The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6.
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.</p>
<p>Number 4 is usually the key.</p>