Work Is Work: Why Free Internships Are Immoral

This summer, millions of students -- some graduating, some between school years -- will spend the summer working. Some will work at restaurants and on retail floors, where working is called "working." Some will work at think tanks and non-profit organizations, where working is called "interning." Estimates put the number of unpaid interns every year between 500,000 and one million. So, in a country where working for free is mostly illegal, a student population somewhere between the size of Tucson and Dallas will be working for free, in plain view.

How long can you afford to work 40-50 hours a week, for free? You know, pay rent, eat food, pay utilties, gas, car payment, buy clothes and all the other assorted living expenses?

Doesn’t this pretty much garrentee that only people of a certain economic strata (or with parents from that strata) are every going to “qualify” for a position?

Or consider the very ‘real world’ scenario. 1 day before you complete your internship - you are replaced. Thank you for your service - next sucker please.

But, how long could you afford to commute, bringing your lunch, paying for gas, insurance, car payments, clothing, utilities, rent and everything else when your pay is ZERO?

Good questions. I suppose many of today's students would use student loan money, which is a bad answer, I do admit. Were I not paid, I couldn't have done it.

I do think that no one is "forced" to take these internships; they are still voluntary. If I were a student, I would definitely look for a different job with pay, even if I couldn't claim it as an "iternship" assignment. Then, I would look to learn whatever business I was in, to gain as much knowledge about business concepts.

Whether that's in retail, construction, whatever. Learn about book-keeping and accounting, learn about the IT systems, learn about inventory management. If you worked at McDonald's, but could legitimately say that you took on additional assignments to manage inventory, or that you produced weekly and monthly sales' reports, that will catch someone's eye on a resume. Of course, you'd better be the best fryman at that franchise before you ask for additional work.

My issue in “Unpaid” intenships is that it is legalized extortion. “Wash my car”, or “Get my coffee” is hardly on-the-job training. It’s legalized slavery.

What you refer to are management problems. Interesting, but in the 2 "internships" I held, I never had to wash anyones cars or get coffee, unless I was getting some for myself.

What I did in the first, at a radio station, was write news stories, do simple engineering tasks, like loading commercials onto carts, swept floors, untangled cables, and anything else that it would have been too expensive to have a paid person do. But I learned alot. Eventually I got into production and more sophisticated engineering tasks.

At my second internship (a recording studio), I untangled cables, swept floors, emptied ashtrays, and learned how to properly mic instruments, as well as microphone selection. And the little things, like making sure that a pair of headphones across the studio wasn't plugged in while recording a Marshall stack, because the Neuman U-47 mic would pick up the sound and cause phase problems!

Though I have never actually gone into either industry (have you ever tried getting a PAYING job at a recording studio?), I learned TONS of stuff and gained experience I never would have gotten had the radio station or studio had to pay me.

Mark

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