Business, Economics, and Taxes: Capitalism. Yay? >=(

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I did an unpaid internship for a federal judge in law school, but it was for credit. I have no problem with those internships because it's essentially just a pass/fail class with practical experience.

Unpaid internships that aren't for credit or aren't through a union/labor department apprenticeship program (or the like), is simply a company trying to get free labor. Fark that.

pre-law school, I did two internships in sports information. The first was for a D3 school where I got paid minimally (like well below minimum wage) but got free on campus housing and some meals, so with that I was probably making close to minimum wage. Second one at a D1 school I got paid marginally better (like $27,000 for the year, I think), was benefit eligible so I had health insurance, and got subsidized housing through the university, so it wasn't horrible. Given the hours I worked, though, probably was making under minimum wage. (40 hours during the week, travel with teams every other weekend, and weekends I wasn't travelling was working home games, though summer was obviously a lighter work load)

Agreed. I had to do a practicum in public health as a requirement for my masters. So I received credit required to graduate. So technically, because the credits cost money, I had to pay to work. That should still continue in those circumstances, and of course they all have requirements- things like, the place you do thr work for is likely not a giant for profit company

 

[Drew S.]

I think it depends on the nature of the internship. If it’s something like 10 hours a week I’m fine with it being unpaid and think it is a huge benefit to the person doing it. If the internship is say 40 hours a week that definitely is not okay if they don’t get paid.

If you had to pay and make people official employees for 10 hour a week internships I think a lot of them would disappear which would obviously not be good for folks without connections.

 

[SJHovey]

Yeah I think we are beyond the days of waxing nostalgic about unpaid internships. I get that is how things used to be...but there are lots of "ways things used to be" that are way outdated and that is one of them.

I guess I don't get why people complain about unpaid internships. If someone is offering an unpaid internship, and you're not interested in doing that work for no pay, don't apply. It's that simple.

There are obviously enough people out there willing to take them in exchange for the experience that companies will still offer them.

 

[LynahFan]

I guess I don't get why people complain about unpaid internships. If someone is offering an unpaid internship, and you're not interested in doing that work for no pay, don't apply. It's that simple.

There are obviously enough people out there willing to take them in exchange for the experience that companies will still offer them.

Shocker.

And if 10-year-old kids are willing to work in the mill 80 hours per week for $0.50/hr, who are we to stop them? If they weren't interested, they just shouldn't apply, right?

Market equilibrium rarely aligns with Justice for All, and it's the government's job to assure the latter even if that requires market manipulation.

 

[BassAle]

I guess I don't get why people complain about unpaid internships. If someone is offering an unpaid internship, and you're not interested in doing that work for no pay, don't apply. It's that simple.

There are obviously enough people out there willing to take them in exchange for the experience that companies will still offer them.

kids from families with money get to take unpaid internships at prestigious firms, and then get a leg up starting their career. Kids from poor families spend the summer working at McDonalds to pay bills.

If all internships were paid, more people would have that opportunity.

I will admit my company does do unpaid internships, but mostly just for local highschool students for academic year internships that are just a few hours a week -- and they don't really do much for real work. They're basically doing a small supervised research project for academic credit. College interns are paid.

 

[SJHovey]

kids from families with money get to take unpaid internships at prestigious firms, and then get a leg up starting their career. Kids from poor families spend the summer working at McDonalds to pay bills.

I took an unpaid internship, and you're right, it did give me a leg up in my career. My family wasn't wealthy. Now, my internship was for only four hours per day, so it gave me time to work other jobs.

But no one held a gun to my head and said I had to take it. I could have worked those four hours a day at McDonalds, I guess.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

I took an unpaid internship, and you're right, it did give me a leg up in my career. My family wasn't wealthy. Now, my internship was for only four hours per day, so it gave me time to work other jobs.

But no one held a gun to my head and said I had to take it. I could have worked those four hours a day at McDonalds, I guess.

This is the exact same argument that continued to be made yesterday.

It’s great you were able to make it work. It’s great that you believe it provided you a step up for your career. But you should have been paid for your time.

The type of internship Bass talks about is how unpaid internships are actually supposed to work. If I’m reading the description correctly, it’s basically doing a case study in a real business setting. However, I’d wager to guess that >90% of unpaid internships are not that, and are instead companies simply using unpaid labor.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Shocker.

And if 10-year-old kids are willing to work in the mill 80 hours per week for $0.50/hr, who are we to stop them? If they weren't interested, they just shouldn't apply, right?

Market equilibrium rarely aligns with Justice for All, and it's the government's job to assure the latter even if that requires market manipulation.

The kids who can’t afford to take unpaid internships because they have to earn a wage to live are just losers

 

[unofan]

I took an unpaid internship, and you're right, it did give me a leg up in my career. My family wasn't wealthy. Now, my internship was for only four hours per day, so it gave me time to work other jobs.

But no one held a gun to my head and said I had to take it. I could have worked those four hours a day at McDonalds, I guess.

"only 4 hours per day." You had enough money that you could afford to work 20 hours per week (plus commute time and costs) for free. Many people don't have that luxury because they, you know, need to get money to eat and put a roof over their heads.

 

[jerphisch]

I took an unpaid internship, and you're right, it did give me a leg up in my career. My family wasn't wealthy. Now, my internship was for only four hours per day, so it gave me time to work other jobs.

But no one held a gun to my head and said I had to take it. I could have worked those four hours a day at McDonalds, I guess.

It wasn't right then either. Would you have rather been paid, or do you think your time was truly worthless and you got every penny you deserved?

 

[MissThundercat]

I'm a grad student now. Last quarter, I took an unpaid internship for 10 hours a week. However, knowing my paid job only got me $423/week net, I felt those 10 hours a week could have been spent getting something. Next quarter, when I go back, I get a virtual experience that comes with credit.

However, when I start something again in person in the fall, I need to figure out a paid job, grad school homework, and an unpaid internship.

 

[SJHovey]

It wasn't right then either. Would you have rather been paid, or do you think your time was truly worthless and you got every penny you deserved?

Sure, I would have rather been paid $1 million per hour.

The thing is, the internship wouldn't exist if it wasn't unpaid. It was a government internship, and it simply wasn't a budgeted item, and it's not like some wealthy corporate owner could just pay me out of his pocket.

I feel like I was compensated for my efforts. I basically considered it an extension of my education. The knowledge, experience and training I received made it well worth it, together with whatever impact it may have had on my resume and future employment prospects.

No one paid me to go to school. In fact, I paid the school. That's what an internship is. I received an education, and instead of paying for it, I worked off my tuition.

 

[MissThundercat]

Also, disabled and the minimum wage: Sam's Club took one guy and put him as a greeter. They took my ADHD ass and put me in carts. I get the feeling Meijer, Wally, and Target do the same thing.

 

[jerphisch]

Also, disabled and the minimum wage: Sam's Club took one guy and put him as a greeter. They took my ADHD *** and put me in carts. I get the feeling Meijer, Wally, and Target do the same thing.

I used to work for Safeway and they would actually give stores additional labor budget to support hiring disabled individuals. So if a job should have taken 20 hours a week but a disabled employee was performing and needed 40 to do it, they would up the stores labor budget to cover the additional cost. I'd imagine it's a common practice.

 

[rufus]

"only 4 hours per day." You had enough money that you could afford to work 20 hours per week (plus commute time and costs) for free. Many people don't have that luxury because they, you know, need to get money to eat and put a roof over their heads.

You mean the ones already working two or three jobs?

 

[rufus]

and it's not like some wealthy corporate owner could just pay me out of his pocket.

Well, no, we know that ain't gonna happen. They got millions to donate to politicians, after all. Can't do that if they're giving you 8 bucks an hour.

 

[unofan]

Sure, I would have rather been paid $1 million per hour.

The thing is, the internship wouldn't exist if it wasn't unpaid.

 

[jerphisch]

I feel like I was compensated for my efforts. I basically considered it an extension of my education. The knowledge, experience and training I received made it well worth it, together with whatever impact it may have had on my resume and future employment prospects.

By this logic, an entry level job is really just experience and training for your next job. So why should you get paid for that either?

 

[rufus]

By this logic, an entry level job is really just experience and training for your next job. So why should you get paid for that either?

That's basically what they think, why they don't want a minimum wage increase. Cause all those people working for minimum wage are all just working entry level jobs.

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Even my old company paid their interns and they once made a slight change to an OT shift I picked up because it saved the company $10.