To Pay Or Not To Pay: Legalities Surrounding Internships Ms. Bels Wednesday, September 4, 2013 The Receipt, Your Money and You When entering their last year of college, most students are lining up internships. College counselors suggests that students look for internships that will give them hands-on training specific to their planned career field. So as an eager college student who’s ready to graduate and place one foot into the corporate world, you will more than likely accept a non-paying internship. In the past, you never really heard of any college grad complaining about being unpaid. Well, times has changed. There have been several lawsuits brought on by interns who believed that they should have been paid. Companies such as Fox Searchlight, Warner Music Group, W Magazine & The New Yorker, and Atlantic Records all have been found guilty in recent legal battles. The cases spotlighted the fact that federal labor laws were violated – offering of less than minimum wage, not providing educational or work-related training, or no compensation at all. All of the interns in these lawsuits were subject to doing jobs that were similar to the paid employees, but yet were not receiving any benefit from working there. Accordingly, Career Builder states that federally, companies must abide by the following guidelines set for internships: •Though the internship might benefit the employer, the training given to the intern is similar to the training given in an educational environment. •The internship clearly benefits the intern. •Regular employees are not displaced from their jobs, and the intern works under staff supervision. •The employer receives no immediate advantage from hiring the intern, and in fact, company activities might be impeded by the presence of the intern. •The internship is not a guarantee or suggestion of employment after the internship is over. •Both the employer and the intern understand and agree that no wages will be awarded to the intern for the internship. The guidelines above, however, does not guarantee that employers will offer a paid internship. To subsidize an interns salary, a lot of companies offer other incentives like free lunch, free access to industry events, on-the-job training or job shadowing opportunities, etc. These incentives oftentimes are good enough for that intern. It all depends really on the intern. If an intern is okay with a non-paying job and is solely focused on gaining the experience, he or she won’t mind not getting paid. But the intern (and the company itself) must always remember to make sure there’s other incentives involved. If not, this is when that internship opportunity is considered against the law. If you are an intern and is currently experiencing non-payment, you may want to talk to your supervisor first before seeking legal assistance. You never know, that manager may be willing to work out something with the HR department so that you can get the compensation and/or educational training that you deserve.
