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Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers
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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.</p>
<p>If youre a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there arent 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 departments wage and hour division.
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In 2008, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 83 percent of graduating students had held internships, up from 9 percent in 1992. This means hundreds of thousands of students hold internships each year; some experts estimate that one-fourth to one-half are unpaid.
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While many colleges are accepting more moderate- and low-income students to increase economic mobility, many students and administrators complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and well-connected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.</p>
<p>Many less affluent students say they cannot afford to spend their summers at unpaid internships....
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The rules for unpaid interns are less strict for non-profit groups like charities because people are allowed to do volunteer work for non-profits.
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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…</p>
<p>[the 6 federal legal criteria for unpaid internships 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…</p>
<p>California and some other states require that interns receive college credit as a condition of being unpaid. But federal regulators say that receiving college credit does not necessarily free companies from paying interns, especially when the internship involves little training and mainly benefits the employer."</p>
<p>My firm will not allow us to offer unpaid internship because of fair labor law. That being said, D1 did do 2 unpaid internships last summer. One was through school, as part of their summer course (half classroom, half at an IB for practical experience). She also did another one, and it was through family connection. Even the second one had more of “educational” purpose. She was shadowing people rather than actually doing work and it was only for 6 weeks. </p>
<p>Both of those unpaid job experience were invaluable with her job search this past winter. She had one leg up relative to other candidates because she knew the jargons and what kind of candidates those firms were looking for. If nothing else, it made her more comfortable at interviews.</p>
<p>It’s a catch 22, employers do not want to hire you unless you have experience, but how do you get experience without the first job. Unpaid internship is a good way of getting that experience.</p>
<p>I am so glad to see that unpaid internships are being seriously looked at. There are some situations where they are legitimate, imo, such as shadowing doctors or experiences closely aligned with college programs. But it seems like so many companies have jumped on the internship bandwagon using interns to do entry level work and just not paying them.
I’m not saying that the students who take these internships don’t have an advantage later, but that doesn’t make it right. In fact, it makes it worse, because those who can’t afford the luxury of an unpaid summer are at a disadvantage, as the article mentions.
I’ve seen this with several of my son’s friends, taking unpaid positions at big mainstream news stations and corporations- kids from well-to-do families hoping to get their foot in the door. </p>
<p>And we’ve always had the catch 22 of employers wanting experienced people. In the past, employers would pay their employees while they were being trained for the job. I think unpaid interns do take potential jobs out of the market, and hurt the economy overall.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids has ever had an unpaid internship. My son has had two paid internships through his college. My daughter has only worked as a paid employee. She managed to get her first job, and a fairly good one, without previous experience.</p>
<p>D currently has an internship which is paid, but not very much. I wish she made more money, but the experience and contacts are worth it. She is interested in a career in a field which is very specific and highly competitive so this is a great opportunity for her.</p>
<p>So, if nobody is complaining, why is the regime so determined to find yet another avenue of intrusion into business, non-profits, and education? Last I heard, kids usually compete for these internship positions.</p>
<p>I am grateful that calmom posted this news. I strongly feel that this is a labor issue as well. </p>
<p>I think possibly one way to handle it would be to designate a particular percentage of the internship hours as apprenticeship hours. In those hours – or appoximately in that percent of the duties – you are engaging in an even exchange: you are learning a craft/acquiring a skill as payment for your labor. And while you aren’t assigned specific tasks during that portion (you may be shadowing), you can be called upon to perform functions if in the discretion of your trainers such duties would be more learning opportunities for you than benefits for your trainers. </p>
<p>During any hours that you are actually required to perform duties, you are paid. Period. Fine if it’s low pay, but it’s pay.</p>
<p>disclaimer: No sour grapes here. My D had a (low) paid internship.</p>
<p>D has an unpaid internship now. It was a factor in her law school admittance. It could just be called “volunteer” but that doesn’t have a nice ring for a vita. However, that would be a way to get around regulation.</p>
<p>She has a job to support herself and was thrilled to get the internship.</p>
<p>In my college town a painting company, “College Student Painters”, has put up small signs on many corners. I looked it up on the internet and they talk about internships for house painters! What is going on here. I can’t imagine a kid getting up on a 30 foot ladder, with no experience and perhaps no insurance or workman’s comp for any amount of money. Could this be legit and I’m too cynical?</p>
<p>Good point. Many people simply can not afford not to earn money. Same goes for HS students who are penalized by Admissions for not having dozens of EC’s on their resume. Because of their family’s economic situation many students have to work after school and during the summer, they have no choice.</p>
<p>Besides what Toblin said…I wanted a basic opening job in a certain field, and it just so happens every single job is volunteer- since it’s a mainly non-profit field. So I can either get the experience I need, or earn money. What an awful choice.</p>
<p>So, if this quote in the article from an Labor Dept. apparatchnik is accurate, the regime is effectively issuing a new edict eliminating unpaid student internships in the private sector:</p>
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<p>Seems like, with the current economic stress, this may not be an opportune time for new heavy-handed enforcement measures. At some level, the economic system simply reaches a breaking point, I would think. My impression is that organizations are going the extra mile to offer these student internships. They are generally not a net plus from a productivity standpoint. I would imagine that most private sector companies will be happy to comply with the regime’s demand and simply end their internship programs. One would think that the Department of Labor might have bigger fish to fry right now with a 9.7% unemployment rate.</p>
<p>Best advice to college parents: don’t turn the kid’s bedroom into a sewing nook just yet.</p>
<p>Some mindless bureaucrat in Washington cliimbed up in Swarthmore’s grill last year about the pay for Writing Associate tutors. This is a nationally recognized peer editor/mentor/tutor writing program. One of the pioneering programs in the country.</p>
<p>The jobs are among the most prestigious on campus, requiring a faculty recommendation and the completetion of a semester-long full-credit seminar in writing pedogogy. The pay is the highest level on campus, but because it’s not an hourly type job, it simply pays a stipend equal to the top pay rate multiplied by the top hours allowed under federal rules. </p>
<p>Swarthmore was informed that they may be “taking advange” of tutors who actually worked more hours than the max, so they were forced to go to a system requiring submission of time cards for every hour spent mentor, tutoring, or reviewing drafts of papers. The net result of the federal meddling is that most Swarthmore Writing Associates now get paid less than they did before the appartachniks “made things better”. There’s no cost-savings to the school because somebody now has to wade thru stacks of time slips from 100+ Writing Associates each month.</p>
<p>"Seems like, with the current economic stress, this may not be an opportune time for new heavy-handed enforcement measures. "
Seems like you don’t think college students need to eat or pay rent?..Times are tough for LOTS of people, including many poor college students. Maybe they need to be PROTECTED from greedy for-profit- businesses looking for ways to get workers that they don’t have to pay for. THAT’S what this article is about…</p>
<p>I was very happy when our legal told me that I couldn’t offer unpaid internship. Last summer almost every parent in the firm was calling up to see if we could let their DS DD to work for free. It is very time consuming to have inexperienced interns in the office.</p>
<p>The two summer internships that my son wants the most (both at New York City museums) are both unpaid. I highly doubt that those museums would offer the 20-30 summer internships they each do now, if they had to pay the students who take them. I do believe that at least some of what they have their interns do is, in fact, genuinely educational. It isn’t getting coffee or making Xeroxes, or anything of the kind.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I also realize that my son has a great advantage in that he doesn’t <em>have</em> to make money this summer, and will have no living expenses if he’s in New York because he will simply live at home. Many other students are not so lucky, and could never afford to apply to positions like these internships. The one internship in Chicago that he’s still hopeful about is also at a museum, but is a paid position. If he’s in Chicago this summer, he will have living expenses, and, therefore, could not get by with an unpaid internship. (I’ve told him that if he’s in Chicago this summer, I will not be willing to pay his rent for him. I did last summer, but won’t again.)</p>
<p>I guess if he’s in New York this summer with one of the internships he wants (knock on wood), he should consider himself very fortunate indeed. By next summer, those internships may not be available if this enforcement effort continues. I don’t see how that would be a good result, overall. Although perhaps the fact that museums are, in law and in fact, educational institutions, might spare them from the impact of such enforcement.</p>