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Regulators Investigating Unpaid Internships

Posted by kdawson on from the slave-by-any-other-name dept.

theodp writes "With job openings scarce for young people, the number of unpaid internships has climbed in recent years, leading federal and state regulators to worry that more employers are illegally using such internships for free labor. Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California, and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. 'If you're a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren't going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,' said the acting director of the US Deptartment of Labor's wage and hour division."

3 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Los Angeles and its entertainment industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't see this too much in the tech industry, but I saw a lot of it going on in the entertainment industry. Los Angeles is a really creepy city that exploits innocent and not-so-wise young people who want to make it big. This is going to hit that city like a brick in the face.

    1. Re:Los Angeles and its entertainment industry by QRDeNameland · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't see this too much in the tech industry, but I saw a lot of it going on in the entertainment industry. Los Angeles is a really creepy city that exploits innocent and not-so-wise young people who want to make it big. This is going to hit that city like a brick in the face.

      Most "normal" industries/professions like tech have paid internships to perform good functions (at least on paper) for that business, to develop a future labor pool while giving an employer cheap yet motivated temporary help.

      It is generally "elitist professions" like government/politics and media where the *unpaid* internships are prevalent, and they are definitely a "paying your dues" process. And as is touched on briefly in the article, this system gives the wealthier kids a distinct edge in these fields, as they are far more likely to be in a position to be able to afford working for no pay.

      --
      Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  2. Such "Enforcement" is a joke by jeko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Read the article. The companies were fined a small fraction of what the intern's wages would have been. It's as if the penalty for robbing a bank was that you'd have to give back twenty percent of the take, and then, only for the times that you were actually found guilty at trial.

    Such "enforcement" is worse than none at all. At least if no company were caught and "punished," there might still be the risk of real penalty in the future. Now, the companies know for a fact that IF they're caught, the penalty will only be a fraction of what they owed anyway.

    Imagine if the IRS came to you and said, "If we catch you cheating on your taxes, you can be assured we'll make you pay a fifth of what you owe."

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