<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>Good. I always thought unpaid internships were a ripoff/gamble. “Hey, come do some uncompensated work for us. If you’re lucky you might get to know someone high up well enough that they can get you a job.”</p>
<p>^ I agree with the concept of you said, but not in practicality, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>See, I’m a science major and I have no research experience whatever. I’m only a freshmen so I haven’t taken many science classes and I’m not eligible to apply for undergraduate research at my college because hundreds of students apply and they take the ones who already have experience and have taken more math/science classes than I have. So I’m thinking about asking a professor if I can volunteer in his lab over the summer. Not really an internship, but I need an activity related to my major and so I can see what it’s like working in a lab, which is important in helping me pick a career. No one is going to pay me $8/hr when I have no clue what I’m doing and might blow up the lab :/</p>
<p>So TL;DR version: sometimes working for free is the only way we kids can get experience to put on our resumes.</p>
<p>Yet another example of excessive government interference in the labor market. If someone wants to work for free, let them. I immensely enjoyed my unpaid internship in a marketing-related position – I was given a great deal of autonomy for a 19 year-old kid, and it opened doors to paid work. With that experience, I had something to talk about in my resume and in interviews. The government has no right to tell me that I can’t provide my labor for free, especially when most good unpaid interns are tremendous learning experiences and ultimately very beneficial to the intern.</p>
<p>This will lead to much fewer opportunities for college students to get a good line on their resume. I don’t care about $7.75/hr vs. $0/hr for now as long as I know this position will help me get a high paying position next year or a two years from now.</p>
<p>19 year olds are not going to get internships that pay well. I’d rather work for free than make around $7/hr if the free internship will help me learn more, network better, and give me a better chance at a great internship when I’m a junior.</p>
<p>This is a good thing. Unpaid internships give wealthy young people yet another advantage when entering the job market, as they can afford to accept a position with no wage but the promise of contacts and experience while poorer students are forced to search for paid work wherever they can find it. </p>
<p>To those saying you should be allowed to work for free: no, you shouldn’t. We have minimum wage laws specifically to prevent workers from bidding each other to the bottom of the pay scale. Lower wages strengthens employers at the expense of workers. Of course, none of you care about this so long as you get to become one of them in ten years with that 200k salary. While the proles starve.</p>
<p>I disagree completely, JaneofLeiden. I’m sure as hell not wealthy; I’ve had to work every summer since I was 14, and in college I work part-time and full-time over the summers - I can’t afford not to. But I’m trying really hard to get an unpaid internship this summer. As a science major, I have a couple options: paid internships are usually ones where we repeat menial skills, sitting in a lab running tests or doing PCR or Gel Electro all day - you don’t learn much. But the unpaid internships are the ones where the PI actually let’s you do some research and you get to learn things; this is what looks good on a resume.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’ll be working 30 hours/week this summer but I’m definitely going to volunteer in a lab - for FREE - because I haven’t taken enough science classes to get the paid jobs and I need experience really badly. I’m looking forward to an unpaid research internship next summer.</p>
<p>*EDIT - Yeah good point Gardna. I understand most unpaid internships aren’t free, I’m just trying to clarify that not all of us who want them are rich kids after $200k ibanking jobs.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m illiterate, but I can’t find where it’s saying that all unpaid internships are illegal. All the article seems to be saying is that there are many unpaid internships that violate existing federal law and that the government is going to be cracking down on them. If you’re not involved in an illegal internship like this, there’s no reason to think that you will lose this opportunity. Again, it’s not like it’s saying that unpaid internships are now banned; they’re just going to be held to the standards that have existed for quite some time now.</p>
<p>Some of you people should actually read the article first, since it’s apparent that you just looked at the title and said “Oh no, the government is regulating the free market again,” or something to the contrary. </p>
<p>The article didn’t even mention any new legislation being posed–all it said was that some employers are violating federal requirements regarding unpaid internships and those employers will be or have been punished for violating statutes. It didn’t say that all unpaid internships would become illegal within the next few years.</p>
<p>As a graduating college senior I think this is great, because the nature of the workforce for upcoming graduates is slowly becoming a harsh one. Companies are simply hiring lots of interns, paying them little or nothing, and a lucky few will get jobs. </p>
<p>And as another person stated, a lot of us do not have the luxury of traveling and doing an unpaid internship.</p>