Slave labor

Trapper · 04-21-2008, 09:43 AM

This time of the year college students are finishing with classes, studying for finals and getting ready for summer internships. Getting a good summer internship is a must for many, but not everybody is happy by the end of the summer. Some internships are paid, some give credits and a large sum of them are just free, no rewards, just knowledge…we supposed that! I heard terrible stories of great students going on an internship for free to research job opportunities and they end with a “master on serving coffee and doing errands”. Are those employers just getting slave labor?

coureur · 04-21-2008, 10:00 AM

Every unpaid internship that I am aware of made it clear up front that there would be no money. No one is forced to take one of these positions against his/her will. Thus the "slave" designation seems a little over the top. If you need to get paid for your summer job you can always apply for an "internship" running the blender at Jamba Juice.

jude_36 · 04-21-2008, 10:05 AM

There are very strict rules about what an unpaid intern is allowed to do. They are NOT allowed to 'take the place of' a paid employee, it's a violation of labor law. So, it doesn't surprise me if many unpaid interns are relegated to the role of observer or errand boy.

corranged · 04-21-2008, 11:07 AM

That's why you research a job before you take it.

osage77 · 04-22-2008, 12:48 AM

I read somewhere that 90% of student internships are unpaid. Is that true? I do think that is not very fair. My daughter applied for internship (unpaid). and was glad to get it. She will be doing the same work that she is getting paid for at her school. Oh! P.S. not observer or errand girl.

emeraldkity4 · 04-22-2008, 01:11 AM

Getting a good summer internship is a must for many, but not everybody is happy by the end of the summer.
An internship is a luxury.
Many kids need to be paid for their summer work to put toward tuition in the fall.

RacinReaver · 04-22-2008, 01:22 AM

Quote:

I read somewhere that 90% of student internships are unpaid. Is that true? I do think that is not very fair. My daughter applied for internship (unpaid). and was glad to get it. She will be doing the same work that she is getting paid for at her school. Oh! P.S. not observer or errand girl.

I got paid for all four summer jobs/internships/research I did during my undergrad years.

scansmom · 04-22-2008, 07:07 AM

What exactly is the purpose of an internship? If it is to train and educate individuals in a particular field, I am not sure I understand why we are willing to PAY tens of thousands of dollars to educate our kids in classes but then turn around and complain because some internships do not pay the student, especially when that is known upfront and it is a choice to do an unpaid internship.

Sure, I understand that the employer is benefitting from the work done by the student intern, and thus the student intern should be "paid" - although I am not sure the employer who "hires" a student for a 3-month or part time internship is really getting their money's worth either, given the learning curve that is typically required of new employees before they really begin to benefit an employer. And isn't the student intern getting something else in return? (some people do value the other benefits of internships besides the monetary benefits

).

hops_scout · 04-22-2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Getting a good summer internship is a must for many, but not everybody is happy by the end of the summer.
An internship is a luxury.
Many kids need to be paid for their summer work to put toward tuition in the fall.

That's a good point and that's why I'll only be doing one internship. It is required for my major that we do an internship the summer before we graduate. Other than that I'm working and it's almost like an internship at the place that I am working at. It's in the same field, but I'm making more than minimum wage

elma · 04-22-2008, 07:49 AM

My son will participate in an unpaid internship this summer. It is a bit of a sacrifice because he depends on the money he earns in the summer to pay for his college expenses. However, what caught us by surprised is his university will charge him to accept the credits at full credit rate.

corranged · 04-22-2008, 09:37 AM

My internships, including those for non-profits, have all paid more than a retail or similar job would. There are plenty of paid internships available in most fields (though in a couple of fields the norm is unpaid--journalism comes to mind--but again, I've seen many paid journalism internships as well) if the student requires summer income. Another option is to take a part time unpaid internship and then work another job that's paid.

oldfort · 04-22-2008, 11:46 AM

I do not believe in unpaid internship.

UCLA Band Mom · 04-22-2008, 11:57 AM

I think that internships should at least pay minimum wage.

madville · 04-22-2008, 12:01 PM

Quote:

I read somewhere that 90% of student internships are unpaid. Is that true?

Don't now if it's true or not, but IIRC at Amherst, President Marx stated that the opportunity for paid interships would be made for every student there.

wjb · 04-22-2008, 12:18 PM

Last summer my D had an unpaid internship that was quite substantive -- no filing or fetching coffee. By law in our state, such internships are limited to, I believe, 15 hours per week. With the rest of her time, she took a paid job of a more mundane sort. She had the best of both worlds -- an interesting internship AND cash.