As the semester ends, students might find themselves applying for internships for the spring and should remember: in an unpaid internship, the company cannot derive profit from your work.
Unpaid internships take advantage of students who deserve to be paid for their contributions.
They also put low-income students interning at a disadvantage, as they are forced to choose either an unpaid internship and gaining valuable experience in a field they hope to be a part of or working a job that actually pays them so they can afford food, housing and education.
More well off students do not have to worry about this, and can afford to not work a paying job and work an unpaid internship
Giving affluent students the advantage at internships leads to lack of diversity in the professional field, leaving low-income people out of the professional world or working twice as hard to get there, despite being at the same educational level.
Beyond being morally unethical, and physically and mentally disadvantageous, unpaid internships may also be illegal.
In 2013, PBS talk show host Charlie Rose paid roughly $110,000 to settle a lawsuit out of court, which was brought on by former interns claiming Charlie Rose’s production company was violating labor laws.
The third criteria from the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division for Unpaid Interns states: “The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.” The fourth criteria states that, “The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasions its operations may actually be impeded;” are most often overlooked or abused by internships in order to use students for free labor.
If a for-profit company gives you on-the-job training and is providing you with work and responsibilities that they would give a part-time worker or full-time worker and benefits from your work, you deserve to be paid for that work, even if you are being provided with college credit for the internship.
Colleges and universities should also be held responsible, as granting academic credit for unpaid internships allows for profit companies to have a stronger argument that they are providing students with an educational opportunity as opposed to being their employer.
If a college or university allows their students to take unpaid internships and receive academic credit, said college or university should provide their students stipends for their work, like University of California Los Angeles.
Citrus College does not have a formal internship program, outside of the STEM internships which are paid. This may also leave our students at a disadvantage, because those students that do take unpaid internships will not even be paid in college credit if they are taken advantage of.
A requisite for paid employment should not be unpaid employment, and you should not be treated like a slave.
