Recently state and federal legislators have mentioned investigating the legality of unpaid internships. Legislators and regulators are looking to possibly prosecute companies for having unpaid internships on the basis that they violate federal minimum wage laws. Whether unpaid internships are illegal or not, abolishing these opportunities will lead to some unintended consequences. First, the fact that students willingly pursue these internships and the fact that applying for these opportunities is usually competitive should tell you something. Interns are benefiting in some way in these situations and anyone that considers making these internships illegal assumes that the students are not being rational when they accept one. Many students willingly pursue and accept unpaid internships to gain experience since many employers are less likely to employ those that do not have experience. Making unpaid internships illegal will make many graduating students less likely to get jobs, especially the types of jobs they want, right after graduation. Many of these unpaid internships actually end with a job offer or at least some valuable experience or learning. These investigations may end up harming the students they are meant to protect because of these unintended consequences.
NY Times article
Good, short article on unintended consequences
I love to see someone post the number of unpaid internships the government (both federal and state) offers annually. Would they make themselves exempt?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read they would be exempt. The theory is that they are looking at private companies because they are getting the interns to do jobs that paid workers would have done and profiting from it or something like that. They argue that the government and non-profits are not profiting from it.
ReplyDeleteThat is a relatively weak argument. If the interns didn't feel they were receiving some benefit from the internship they would have agreed to do it. (Or you can pick one of the other obvious flaws in their logic to pick apart.)
ReplyDeleteIt is a weak/bogus argument and I tried to point that out in the post. I was just making their point. I didn't write about how the govt/nonprofits would be exempt show I could keep it short.
ReplyDelete