<p>A movie industry intern investigated the law and decided to sue:</p>
<p>Full disclosure–I became aware of this particular video because my DIL wrote the music for the “Moral Courage” series of vids.</p>
<p>No, no…</p>
<p>No and No, but there are work rules around unpaid internships, and if those rules are broken, it becomes illegal.</p>
<p>[Is</a> My Unpaid Internship Illegal? - Business Insider](<a href=“http://www.businessinsider.com/is-my-unpaid-internship-illegal-2013-6]Is”>Is My Unpaid Internship Illegal?)</p>
<p>"Here are the six criteria from the Department of Labor, all of which an unpaid internship must pass in order to be legal.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
<li><p>The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.</p></li>
<li><p>The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.</p></li>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
<li><p>The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.</p></li>
<li><p>The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In short, an unpaid internship has to be almost wholly for the benefit of the intern and not the employer — and that’s often not the case."</p>
<p>The video doesn’t go into details of the case, but apparently at least one rule was broken and this is not an unusual case. I got the impression that no one wants to complain and rock the boat.</p>
<p>What a major DB. May he never work in this town again.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Technically correct, except when the internships “gigs” extend well beyond the legal and ethical definition. And, unfortunately, that has become common in 2013. </p>
<p>When it comes to defending the rights of the students, if we had government officials who were not so lazy and utterly unable to ascertain what is ethical, the loopholes used by abusive companies would have been closed a few years ago.</p>
<p>How old is that guy?? 30-35?? Get a real job.</p>
<p>Hope the link below works – this thread made me think of an interesting opinion piece I read recently on unpaid internships.</p>
<p>[Sheryl</a> Sandberg ?Leans In? to another controversy](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/08/14/sheryl-sandberg-leans-in-to-another-controversy/]Sheryl”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/08/14/sheryl-sandberg-leans-in-to-another-controversy/)</p>
<p>Thanks, Mom2twins.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to intern at a nonprofit that truly can’t afford to pay you, but you gain valuable experience and a line on your resume. But when an organization or executive that can clearly afford to throw some money your way instead gets your labor for free…that’s inexcusable.</p>
<p>barrons–here’s an update and some more background. </p>
<p>[The</a> Afterlife of an Unpaid Intern Who Sues His Old Boss - Rebecca Greenfield - The Atlantic Wire](<a href=“http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/afterlife-unpaid-intern-who-sues-his-old-boss/66219/]The”>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/afterlife-unpaid-intern-who-sues-his-old-boss/66219/)</p>
<p>Yes, this is ridiculous. It seems inexcusable for a for profit company to use people like this. But as long as some parents and kids put up with it, it will continue. Auctioning off internships? Does that really happen? If so, that is amazing.</p>
<p>Yeah, lawyers. Good for him. Still a DB.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What the normalcy of unpaid internships means, in economic terms, is that the market clearing pay level for entry-level jobs in that line of work is zero.</p>
<p>That should theoretically deter many people from going into that line of work, but apparently there are enough people who still want to go into that line of work and have external financial resources (e.g. wealthy parents) who can support them during their zero-pay entry-level jobs.</p>
<p>You know what sucks though? For those who need a job in order to get through school but they need to cut down work hours in order to make room for internship which gives them career experience. I wish schools and internships could organize some kind of program to benefit students like this. </p>
<p>You know what else sucks? Getting class credit for the internship but needing to pay tuition on that class. I’m basically paying $700ish to take an internship this semester because at our university, internships go along with a class where we evaluate what we do on a weekly basis with a professor. What.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Since the employers already have enough people willing to take zero-pay entry-level jobs, they don’t really “need” to do anything of the sort to enable more people to take such zero-pay entry-level jobs (from their own point of view).</p>
<p>You may want to find a different line of work, since the fact that entry-level jobs are zero-pay means that there are way more applicants than jobs, so there is likely a big weeding process before you get to a decently paid career track in that line of work.</p>
<p>I have law student interns all the time. They pay for the credits and it gives them exposure to areas of law and the operation of law that they otherwise wouldn’t have. They get introduced to people who sometimes hire them because of the experience of interning with us and it looks good on their resumes. They do real work under close supervision. Overall, they get a “real world” view of what working in the law is like.</p>
<p>
No, it just means that it’s less than minimum wage plus mandated benefits (assuming they are working forty hours a week). </p>
<p>It is entirely possible that an employer would prefer people who would work for $200 a week (or the people they could get for $200 a week) to the people who would work for free, but, as they cannot pay $200 per week, they take the people who will work for free.</p>
<p>If the market-clearing pay rate is greater than $0, then there should be a shortage of people willing to take those unpaid internships, or presumably much more willingness of people to complain about them.</p>
<p>The problem is with defining internships as equivalent to entry level jobs (with $0 salary), when the law says they should not be (primarily educational and benefitting the intern). Some industries (publishing, fashion, etc.) have taken the concept and twisted it to be their de facto entry level, and treating these interns as employees in all but salary.</p>