Unpaid interns struggle to make ends meet
Workplace experts are questioning the fairness of unpaid or extremely low-paying entry-level positions.
from the March 5, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
Increasingly, companies are reevaluating the legality of maintaining unpaid interns. "More and more companies are not offering these [unpaid internships] because the boundary [between legal and illegal unpaid internships] is close," says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international outplacement firm.
According to the United States Fair Labor Standards Act, companies can employ unpaid interns provided – among other requirements – on-the-job training is for the benefit of the interns and companies receive no "immediate advantage." This means companies should not profit from an intern's work and in some cases training interns may even impede the companies day-to-day operations.
Unpaid interns in the US haven't tested the law recently, but last April in Germany unpaid interns organized a large-scale demonstration and an online petition calling for an end to unpaid internships. The German government posted the 40,000 signatures on its website, and Germany's Labor Minister at the time, Franz Müntefering, publicly condemned unpaid internships. The protests prompted the creation of Fair Company, an alliance of organizations that have committed to paying interns reasonable wages.
Given current trends, such an outcry among American interns is unlikely, says University of Washington's Neff. Because internships are so important to many students, Neff believes that students would not speak out for fear of damaging future career options.
"In the last five years, we've seen that students and their 'helicopter' parents have been homing in on internships ... as engines of career success," says Oldman. "Helicopter" parents are so-called because of their intense involvement in their children's lives – they tend to hover over them.
In 2006, 84 percent of college graduates said they'd completed at least one internship, paid or unpaid; 53 percent said they'd completed two or more internships; and only 1 percent said internships are not important, according to Vault's annual survey. Compare this with 1980, when only 3 percent of college graduates said they'd had an internship experience.
"One reason that companies can rely on unpaid internships is that people are lining up to do them," says Neff.
After graduating from New York University, aspiring comic Michael Feldman indirectly paid $1,600 so he could intern at "The Daily Show," a popular, satirical news show on cable TV.
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