Denouncing unfair internships: It works

I’m yet to read an article that quotes a lawyer saying that unfair internships are legal. The bottom line is always the same as in this article from the OregonLive:

“An internship, to be unpaid and legal, needs primarily to be a learning experience for the intern and not something where the intern is expected to produce work product that is going to benefit the employer.”

There are some good news for the interns:

“All it takes is one disgruntled intern, or their parent or spouse or friend, to call the U.S. Department of Labor, and the company who follows this type of exploitative advice is toast,” he said. “The government is becoming increasingly aggressive in hunting down these situations.”

The article gives a very useful resource to denounce unfair internships:

The Labor Department takes complaints on the Web, in local district offices, and through the toll-free number 1-866-4-USWAGE. Officials will investigate whether internships violate wage and hour laws or other labor laws.

And a good reminder to all those who think they may just try anyway:

The bottom line: You can’t just call people interns to avoid paying them, said Rosemary Gousman, a Murray Hill, N.J.-based regional managing partner at Fisher and Phillips, a labor law firm.

It’s also worth quoting the opening paragraph of the article, a good summary of why students often fall for unfair internships:

Summer interns are ripe for exploitation. They’re desperate for real-life experience to help them land a permanent job, at a time when the economy is slowing and positions are scarce. Many are willing to work for free or below-market rates just to get a foot in the door.

Less jobs, more internships

The economy slows down and the demand for unpaid interns goes up. Coincidence? We think not.

Apprenticeships, not internships, are the answer

Philip L. Elison questions the advice of Lou Glazer from Michigan future who says that unpaid internships are the answer to Michigan’s exodus of graduates.

Unlike paid jobs, internships provided by Michigan’s universities and colleges are generally unpaid, half-time positions, doing the work normally done by full-time professionals in the field. What career offices are touting as “hands-on experience” is what employers view as “free labor.” It is no surprise graduates then run for the paying jobs in other states. As the adage goes, “You get what you pay for.”

And he suggests a solution: do what the US law says.

Instead of internships, businesses and organizations should be creating apprenticeships. In the skilled trade sectors, an apprentice begins to work for a skilled mentor that provides advice, guidance and counsel. While working and being paid, the college apprentice gets on-the-job training, makes connections in the field and accumulates hands-on experience.

It’s so obvious you wonder why Michigan Future haven’t thought of it themselves.

That’s rich

The obnoxious Sean Avery of the New York Rangers (that’s hockey - like baseball, but with a puck, a stick, skates and ice) made a splash when we learned earlier this month that he was an intern at Vogue Magazine. It turns out that the millionaire got a preferential treatment: he was paid minimum wage.

New York Mag has contacted former interns at Vogue and found a different reality:

For example, Sean is getting minimum wage for his work at the magazine, while real interns don’t get paid a dime.

Why did Vogue pay Avery a minimum wage and not its other interns?

Subsidized internships in Ontario

Students in Ontario may wat to take note of the program ACCELERATE where the provincial government provides CAD $16.89 millions over 4 years. Each internship will last 4 months and be paid about CAD $15,000. Sounds very reasonable. Even better is the structure of the experience:

Graduate student researchers will spend a minimum of 50 per cent of their time over a four-month period at a company, undertaking research on a problem jointly identified by the intern, business, a supervising professor, and MITACS, which is a federally funded network of Centres of Excellence that is managing the internship program.

Depressing life of an unpaid intern - Not?

Well well, who would’ve guessed: Fox News think that going unpaid is just the way to go. Of course, they don’t bring up any argument that hasn’t been mentioned before: it’s good for networking, it gets you experience, etc. But still, they fail to explain why it justifies being un(der)paid.

They should have stopped after their lead:

You arise with the sun, get to work by nine, stay at the office until six or later, but come Friday when paychecks go out, you’re left empty handed. Sound familiar? You must be living the depressing life of an unpaid intern.

80 employees, 40 interns

If a magazine has 80 employees and 40 interns, could it be that there’s something wrong?

Much like there is no free lunch, there is no free labour. It’s against the law in the US to hire people and not pay them. Calling them interns won’t cut it.

InternshipRatings.com - Review your internship

InternshipRatings.com is another website where you can vent about your unfair internship or praise a fair one - or just check which employers are not exploiting their interns. It sets its heart to cover all 50 states, but falls short in many states, most likely because it was created recently. It is organized clearly, especially if you’re looking for reviews in a particular state or industry. It even allows to filter results by paid or unpaid internships and reports whether an internship was “great” for compensation when at least 51% of raters agree. It has a section where interns can find advice from industry professionals. This would be a good place to advise students on how to avoid or deal with an unfair/illegal internship.

YouIntern.com - Review your internship

We understand that it can be daunting to report an unfair internship to the authorities, even if it can be done anonymously. What may be easier is to write an anonymous review reporting your conditions. YouIntern.com collects testimonies from interns. Feel free to talk about your good experiences, but also don’t hold back from saying out loud that some employers exploit their interns. If you were performing the duties of an employee without receiving adequate compensation, your internship is unfair. Help others avoid the trap.

Update (June 24): I just noticed that you can filter internships by compensation (paid/unpaid/credits) which is just great. I wish we could filter them by fair/unfair as there are some in both categories. It’s a testimony though to how confusing the interface is at the moment that it took me so long to find that critical function.

Pay to be privileged

Lindsay Gerdes makes the case in Newsweek against pay-to-intern schemes. She says that if these companies do the heavy lifting for you, you won’t learn to get a job yourself.

A personal favourite is certainly the claim by one of those companies that paying-to-work gives access to those who are not privileged: “it makes it easier for students from schools without tight internship connections to get the experience.” “But still have $10,000 to cough up”, we may add.