All Posts Tagged With: "unpaid internships"
Are unpaid internships legal? The confusion continues
Even employment counselors don’t understand the rules
Photo courtesy of USDAgov on Flickr
University career counselors in the United States don’t understand what constitutes a legal internship, according to a new survey of 427 of them.
Nearly a fifth of those surveyed believe that interns must always be paid or else their work is illegal. That’s not true. Another fifth believed that internships are always legal, regardless of whether there’s academic credit awarded. That’s also not true.
The standard in both the U.S. and Canada is as follows. If someone receives academic credit from a college or university for their work placement, it’s assumed that the experience is primarily educational and therefore they don’t need to be paid. But if a so-called intern is not in school, the organization isn’t a non-profit, and/or they’re replacing a regular employee, the job is considered a job like any other — the minimum wage laws apply. Read more about the rules and the backlash against unpaid internships, right here.
Regardless of the rules, college counselors overwhelmingly agree that internships are valuable and don’t think students should be too concerned with pay. More than 80 per cent think a student should take an unpaid internship if they can’t find a paid one and only 11 per cent think that all interns should be paid for their work.
What I didn’t do this summer
Internships, or how I learned to stop worrying and love working for free
Summer is almost over and it wasn’t a vacation for everyone. I was reminded when I read this article about unpaid work and underemployment. It especially hit home since it was written by and features some of my former classmates. Previous summers in university, I split between searching for internships, doing unpaid internships, searching for menial jobs and working menial jobs–usually all at once.
I never expected to get a job with my degree alone. In the journalism industry, it’s practically unheard of. However, where and where is the limit? How long can you work a part-time job to fund your unpaid internship and foot the expenses of daily life? How many new lines on your resume do you need add before you can finally get a paying job in your field of study? Intern culture is here to stay and at the expense of the unpaid. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of good internships with great opportunities to learn and network. But for every internship, it feels there are five “internships” offered by companies with a revolving door of new interns and no intention of hiring. Employers don’t even need to hint at the possibility of getting hired. Interns now assume they won’t be hired but will do the time and hope it makes a difference next time they send out their CV. This isn’t new or a product of the recession, in fact, it’s the only system I’ve known since I started university four years ago.
One of the most dangerous things about a recession are the attitudes it breeds in workers towards themselves. Today you have to be thankful that you have a minimum wage job because someone in your graduating class hasn’t found one yet. It’s common to hear casual comments that striking workers should be fired because others would love to have their jobs. (Toronto garbage, York University, Ottawa bus strike–take your pick.) Putting feelings about unions aside, we’re headed down a slippery slope of devaluation of work and the worker. It’s an unpleasant destination but one too many people seem only too determined to go down.
