Why Are Unpaid Internships Still Legal? Defending the Indefensible - How Money Works

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Nobody likes needing to go to work, but we do it because it puts money in our pockets and food on our tables, and hey if you can find a job that you don’t totally hate to fill this requirement that’s great.

But what about jobs that you aren’t paid for at all?

Unpaid internships rightfully attract a fair bit of scrutiny in modern corporate America.

Many say that these roles effectively amount to slave labor, where scummy companies are able to take advantage of free workers to do the menial tasks that they would have otherwise had to employ an office secretary for.

Even the best unpaid internship programs at high end technology companies have their critics, for some pretty valid reasons.

And you know, on the surface this looks pretty cut and dry.

A worker should get an honest compensation for an honest days work, that’s just fair, but what if that compensation didn’t come in the form of a pay check?

Well it’s time to learn how money works by defending the indefensible and looking how unpaid internships of all things could actually be the answer to a lot of the problems facing our modern workforce.

#LaborCrisis #Careers #HowMoneyWorks

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Music by Epidemic Sound

[sauron]

"Unpaid Internships" are basically old style apprenticeship without guaranteed entry into a guild at the other end.

[FinancialShinanigan]

If I wanted to get people coffee without getting paid, I'd just work for my parents.

[ajr]

Within the world of conservation and marine biology, unpaid internships have practically become a requirement to get any form of paid work. Stats to vary but the general rule is that you need to do about 3 unpaid internships to land an entry level job (and this is on top of your bachelor's and masters). A typical internship is usually 3 months to 6 months. So you're looking at a minimum of 9 months of full time unpaid labour. And often you have to pay just to turn up. So it means that unless you have parents able to pay your living expenses and for the internship itself (usually in the order of £1000 a month) then getting into this industry is nearly impossible. And the industry has the audacity to complain about a lack of diversity.

[financeclubyt]

I think a few hundred dollars for internships would be great. The company's don't need to pay a lot but I think 0$ is problematic

[behrensf]

The problem with unpaid internships is that only rich people can afford to only be paid in experience...

[marlonsubuyu]

Internships should pay at least something, everyone has to eat, pay for transportation. It's not easy

[floridaman]

It's gonna get to the point where we will have to pay an up front fee to any potential employers to work for them. Oh and don't forget an application or processing fee.

[errrzarrr]

The issue with this is is becoming a trend where free-laborers are taken advantage of and in exchange they get nothing useful for them –not relationships that are worth of (toxic environment), not gaining technical skills, nothing really useful for them to profit later. They doing boring mind-dumbing paper work, carrying coffee cups and such.

Even worse, paid workers are being compared to these guys to push salaries down.

[davehoghead]

The single most important skill from Engineering undergrad was learning how to learn. Knowing what you don’t know and how to approach problems. I haven’t worked in my field at all, and taught many coworkers.
Still think co-op or interns should be paid though. It’s a bad manager who can’t get value out of their interns

[FriedPlacentaBurger]

I use the logic from Goodfellas,

“F**k you, pay me.”

[GiantFrog]

The benefits of an unpaid internship are great, for the people who can afford to continue existing in this mortal realm with no income. My greastest criticism, apart from companies possibly abusing the system, is that it further divides the poor from the wealthy. I don't think it's the government's place to foot the bill with financial assistance while companies don't pay their lowest workers. It's already far cheaper to pay a good hourly rate without benefits!

[majorfallacy]

I didn't find this one too convincing. Training on the job has worked before unpaid internship were a thing, and was arguably even more effective. But we're now in a work culture where companies don't invest in their staff anymore, so anyone who can afford it now has to do it themselves. But since not everyone can afford to invest in themselves, I'd argue this leads to an overall loss of productivity in society since medium skill jobs don't profit from the flexibility that this kind of work culture facilitates all that much

[igormarcos]

As a senior developer companies already abuse us by requesting "tests" that are basically you doing some task for them for free, sometimes a fully fledged monetized feature. Imagine what the beginners have to go through.
The way to solve is making unpaid labor illegal again (I thought it was already).

Unpaid internships are beneficial when you actually learn and they dont just use you for cheap labour

[johnallenbailey]

As a social worker with a bsw and msw, I worked for free for almost 2 years.. it's ridiculous and didn't help me get any closer to a decent job.

[MrNemitri]

The only time that I can justify paying 0$ for labor would be if its a special project to graduate, otherwise it's just modern slavery.

[donaldmark]

People are complaining about employee wages and this is the more reasons to start your own business. Even if its something small, make yourself your own ceo...

Nevertheless Investments are easiest means to accumulate money .

[jeffbenton]

Interesting commentary. I'd be interested in your opinion on studies that found that people who completed paid internships were more likely to receive a job from that company than people who completed an unpaid internship (and that there was no statistically significant difference between people who didn't intern at all from those who did unpaid internships)

[johncasey]

I personally would never work for free. People have a choice. You can choose to not accept unpaid internships and eventually the employers will need to rethink their position on unpaid internships.

[Mekias]

I actually got into my entry level IT job through a 2 month training boot-camp where they paid for my hotel room and gave me a $25k salary (this was 20 years ago). I had to apply for this and it wasn't a guarantee of long-term employment but, looking back, I got incredibly lucky. I couldn't have afforded to do an unpaid internship.