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  1. #1
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    Default Students fight back against illegal unpaid internships 4:58 p.m. EDT May 13, 2013

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...ships/2145033/


    NYU sophomore has gathered 1,000 student signatures on a petition to have a campus career center remove illegal unpaid internship postings.


    (Photo: Christina Isnardi)
    Story Highlights

    • NYU students are petitioning the school's Wasserman Career Center to remove unpaid internship listings
    • The Fair Labor Standards Act outlines six criteria to define an illegal, unpaid internship
    • Recent study finds 36% of graduates received at least one job offer, compared with 37% of graduates who were unpaid interns



    Would you ever work up to 40 hours a week for free?
    That's what many college students do. It's called the unpaid internship.
    New York University sophomore Christina Isnardi is publicly pushing back against the trend of unpaid internships by petitioning the NYU Wasserman Career Center to remove illegal unpaid internship postings on its job search website, CareerNet.
    The idea came about when she and another NYU sophomore, Rachel Whitbeck, were discussing their unpaid internships.
    "For me, it was through personal experience," said Isnardi. "I took two unpaid internships advertised by the school, and both were exploitative on two different extremes. For one of these internships, I was literally performing my boss' job for him and I was denied pay. For another internship, I found myself only performing menial tasks, such as pressing elevator buttons and going on coffee runs. For both internships, I was treated like an employee and did not receive compensation for my work."
    When Isnardi talked to Whitbeck about her experiences, she found that Whitbeck couldn't even take those internships, because she couldn't afford to work for free.
    "We realized that the problems we faced could be partially fixed if the current labor laws set out by the U.S. Department of Labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act were enforced, and at least minimum wage was given to interns who were doing the work of employees," said Isnardi.
    The Fair Labor Standards Act sets forth the following six criteria for an unpaid internship to be legal:
    1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
    2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
    3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.
    4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
    5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
    6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
    Although the Wasserman Career Center has been receptive to the petition, Isnardi said the center is hesitant to remove even illegal unpaid internships because it thinks it also will be removing opportunities for some students to break into their professional fields.

    OPINION: Unpaid internships reinforce American inequality
    However, Isnardi cites a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers that shows that 36% of graduates received at least one job offer, compared with 37% of graduates who were unpaid interns and 60% of graduates who were paid interns. According to this survey, having an unpaid internship increases your likelihood of getting a job by only 1%.
    So far, Isnardi has 1,000 signatures on her petition from NYU students.
    However, she urges students to take the initiative to help solve the unpaid internship problem.
    "First, students can fight illegal unpaid internships by simply not taking them. We must become aware of our rights as interns and recognize that we are perpetuating our own exploitation," said Isnardi. "Another way is through lawsuits. There are millions of unpaid interns who can file lawsuits, and if enough interns seek justice, the system may be brought down. Finally, more pressure needs to be put on local, state, and federal governments to enforce the labor laws that they wrote into law."
    Susannah Griffee is a Spring 2013 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

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  3. #2
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    The problem with this issue is that most people only see the issue of money. Sometimes, it's beneficial to work/learn/train under another person or company for free. If you need the money more than the experience or the resume builder, by all means, go work at a burger joint or a big box store.
    No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -Eleanor Roosevelt

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    I'll admit I skimmed the article. Are these students receiving college credit? There is value in working an unpaid internship such as connections to the industry which is great once you graduate. I agree with Chacha, if you need money more than the experience then work somewhere else. Or find a job that's related to the industry you are studying.

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    this issue goes beyond money.
    planning for an unpaid internship is necessary. you either have to save up, get a side job, or have some wealthy folks to take care of you. the problem is internships are designed to also help the intern learn - but several employees leave the intern performing menial tasks (fetch me some coffee!) with little to no! hands on training. i understand that extra tasks are necessary, but if you come out there learning nothing then that's a problem - you've been exploited (in a first-world kinda way). the experience can still be beneficial, as you could get connections. this happened to me where i interned for this dumbass non-profit and they left me at a desk doing nothing, even when i offered to help out. it was a waste of time, especially since they didn't offer to be my reference. it was a learning experience nonetheless - i learned not to trust some of these mofos, lol. the problem is when they say you will learn something and they don't teach you ish.

    lol idk why i forgot to take out the date in the title when i pasted it.
    Last edited by Vavoon; 06-13-2013 at 04:16 PM.

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    I'd be interested to see if studies have been done on the benefits of internships ie how many students have actually benefited by getting hands on experience, made industry contacts etc. I've said it before but IMHO, it's modern day slavery: in most if the internships I've heard of, they get the students to do the same tasks they'd have to pay someone to do and they're expected to perform at the same levels as professionals. I think a parallel economy has been built on the backs of students.


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    Although all of my journalism internships were paid (thanks to my undergrad program's requirements), I knew classmates who took unpaid internships but received many other benefits--reporting experience, writing/publishing stories (bylines), free office food, etc. None of the internships I had or others had were illegal. Was it grunt work? Yep! But not illegal.

    The answer is in the article:
    So far, Isnardi has 1,000 signatures on her petition from NYU students.
    However, she urges students to take the initiative to help solve the unpaid internship problem.
    "First, students can fight illegal unpaid internships by simply not taking them. We must become aware of our rights as interns and recognize that we are perpetuating our own exploitation," said Isnardi.

    Of course no one should be exploited and the internship should certainly benefit the student. I'm not reading anything that indicates exploitation that calls for this response.

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    @Newlife
    Not posh? Good luck becoming a journalist

    The majority of young people entering journalism today are from middle class ‘professional’ families, in what is becoming an increasingly socially exclusive career, a new survey has found.According to the ‘Journalists at Work 2012′ study by the journalism body NCTJ, 65% of those who manage to break into the industry have a parent who is a professional, a manager or a director. (That’s nearly two thirds.) Just 3 percent of new journalists come from a family of ‘unskilled’ workers. The findings are unlikely to surprise readers of Graduate Fog, many of whom are battling to enter journalism but finding they are required to do endless unpaid (or very low paid) internships before they will even be considered for paid jobs – even ‘cover’ or shift work. Not only are those who take these unpaid internships exploited – those who can’t afford to do them are excluded
    .

    though this specific article is focused on money (journalism) it points out another underlying issue with these unpaid internships - the lack of experience offered to interns. btw, maybe it's because i went to a suny school with an okay program, but everyone who i know who did journalism is struggling.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vavoon View Post
    @Newlife
    Not posh? Good luck becoming a journalist

    .

    though this specific article is focused on money (journalism) it points out another underlying issue with these unpaid internships - the lack of experience offered to interns. btw, maybe it's because i went to a suny school with an okay program, but everyone who i know who did journalism is struggling.
    Without question, nepotism is real in any profession. I think the cause of the bigger struggle of today's aspiring journalists is the state of the profession itself. Print journalism has been on the decline for decades with the rise of the internet. Newspapers have been losing readership for years. Broadcast journalism has always been tough to break into. Few jobs and (too) many people trying to compete.

    I mean, I get it about parental educational attainment and its correlation to child educational attainment and career/professional options. I think that explanation could be applied to almost any blue-/pink-/white-collar profession, though.

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    I can see how unpaid internships can reinforce inequality because if I can't afford to work for free, then I'm missing out on what could be a valuable experience career wise. Those who don't have to worry so much about finances are then able to take these opportunities and advance quickly and/or further in their careers.
    The rules of unpaid legal internships seem like a tough thing to balance. As a company, you have to provide the interns with some experience but at the same time they can't function too much like an employee or things become a problem. I think that's why the lady in the article experienced both ends of the spectrum. One company said forget the rules, we're getting some benefit from this intern and the other company seemed to be afraid of going too far in violating the rules; so much so that the intern didn't get any educational value from her time there.

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    I only hope that other students don't miss out on great, unpaid internship opportunities because of this agenda. The simplest solution is for folks not to take internships that they don't see the value in. That way these students don't feel exploited and other students don't lose access to info about internships on the job search website.
    the artist formerly known as Electra


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