“Employers love for free labor is even more than employers love for cheap labor”, said Daniel Raymond who worked as an unpaid intern after his MBA for Master Trust. He gave an interview and was selected as an intern least did he expected that the compensation will mean a weekly stipend for the work equal to a regularly paid employee. He is given targets; he used to go for cold calls, he made new clients and still he used to pay his own expenses. Even though unpaid internships are an extension to classroom, government should intervene because unpaid internships are illegal and unpaid internship is even worse than child labor, at least child laborers are paid for their hard work.
This is the plea of almost every second intern said Alex Try, co-founder of U.K. website Interns Anonymous. Interns are forced to make tea whole day or asked to fetch lunch for the employer or asked to print out forms every day as the part of their internship programs. But employers feel different. According to them, internships are an extension to classroom teaching and the experience that student gain through practically working in an organization is priceless and upgrades their resume. Generation entering in their twenties feels adrift as they are unable to become independent, still living in their parental house asking parents to pay for their expenses even though they have a degree to flaunt they are in debt. The unpaid labor racket had even more worst effects leading to inequality and exacerbated class division as most of the people from less privileged background cannot afford unpaid internships in leading professions like mass media, financial sectors, entertainment, etc.
The law has said for decades that unpaid internships are illegal with few exceptions, but it is been observed that employers are not adhering to the regulations. It was evident in the case of Xuedan Wang, the 28-year-old plaintiff working under a media corporation worked full time and sometimes over time for 4 months but was not paid. Such cases have lead to lack of trust in the students or job seekers, and they even tend to ignore many opportunities to work and learn. Employers feel that internships are practical learning experience where an intern gets the opportunity to meet experienced people, make life long connections which can accelerate their career. These benefits are far more than money. Is it? Working as a regularly paid employ and getting business for the company and getting nothing in return will rather discourage the intern and it does not mean that just because someone is starting the career he should not be paid for his hard work. Even child labors were paid for their work on daily basis.
Normally employers argue that there are lot of job opportunities for an intern and he can be placed in the same company where he did his internship. As employers have invested lot of time, money and resources training an intern and they would happily give him some position in the company as he is asset for the company. But reality is totally different. Many interns have been forced to do menial jobs in the company and later on were not given any job or were terminated without after a short period without giving any reason.
Conclusion
The labor department should take steps to implement laws strictly and ensure that employers are not violating wage and hour laws by using the intern as labor rather than providing them on the job training. It is essential to generate awareness and make interns aware of their rights and policies of the labor department for example, unpaid internships are legal only if both the parties are aware of the situation; the employer is not directly getting benefit from interns work and student is not a replacement of the regular employee.
Now is the time to enforce the existing laws and repair the damage or at least prevent further damage. Institutions, Students, Government, not for profit institutions all should join hands and raise voice against such exploitation and discrimination. As an intern, students should be well educated about the rules and regulations of the labor department and ensure that their employer is abiding by the set standards and government should take strict actions and penalize the egregious law breakers.
References
David Lat founder and managing editor of Above the Law (July 18, 2013), Raphael Pope-Sussman , news assistant at Law360 (February 7, 2012) Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/02/04/do-unpaid-internships-exploit-college-students/government-should-allow-most-unpaid-internships
