Here's a publication from the Department of Labor concerning the legality of unpaid internships in the United States: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
11–16 of 16 posts
Re: Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
#12I've had both paid and non-paid internships and I've been fortunate enough to have the non-paid internship turn into a contract position and then a full-time position. However, what scared me about each position is that I was never told upfront if there was real possibility for a full-time position. I'm still against non-paid internships, but at a minimum, if you must have an unpaid intern, at least let them know whether or not that internship can realistically turn into a full time position or not and what benefits there will be as an unpaid intern. Set those expectations, that way at least the potential intern can weight the pros and cons for themselves whether or not the unpaid position is really worth their time.
Re: Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
#13I have really mixed feelings about this. As the founder of a self-funded, bootstrapping startup, every dollar that we spend is coming out of my $dayjob salary, which really limits what we can spend on paying other people. Even paying minimum wage is probably not a realistic option. And, I think an unpaid internship can be a win-win for both parties in at least some situations. And, as a libertarian, I reject the noti…
Concerning the libertarian argument, a counterpoint is that the student is kind of "forced" to do an internship.
Re: Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
#14Who benefits from unpaid internships and how much? Not paying for internships eliminates students who cannot afford to work for free.
Re: Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
#15I have really mixed feelings about this. As the founder of a self-funded, bootstrapping startup, every dollar that we spend is coming out of my $dayjob salary, which really limits what we can spend on paying other people. Even paying minimum wage is probably not a realistic option. And, I think an unpaid internship can be a win-win for both parties in at least some situations. And, as a libertarian, I reject the noti…
If you were to hire an unpaid intern - are they not creating any value for you (or very little)? Then why are you hiring them? If they are creating value for you, then that should be extra money in the pool, and some of it should go to the intern. What am I missing?
Re: Unpaid Internships: Get on the Right Side of History
#16I have really mixed feelings about this. As the founder of a self-funded, bootstrapping startup, every dollar that we spend is coming out of my $dayjob salary, which really limits what we can spend on paying other people. Even paying minimum wage is probably not a realistic option. And, I think an unpaid internship can be a win-win for both parties in at least some situations. And, as a libertarian, I reject the noti…
If you were to hire an unpaid intern - are they not creating any value for you (or very little)? Then why are you hiring them? If they are creating value for you, then that should be extra money in the pool, and some of it should go to the intern. What am I missing?
If they are creating value for you, then that should be extra money in the pool, and some of it should go to the intern. What am I missing?
The time delay between creating the value and turning that value in money. In a situation like ours, a pre-revenue, bootstrapped startup, we can create a ton of value, but nobody knows exactly when our first (and subsequent) sales will be.
Now, if an intern wanted an arrangement with deferred compensation, contingent on some future revenue, etc., etc., that could theoretically be arranged. But it probably wouldn't be worth the effort to do all that.
OTOH, value can be exchanged in other ways other than money. An intern who works for "free" in the monetary sense may still benefit from the situation. A strong letter of recommendation and a verifiable reference to put on the resume represent a form of value as well.
But, all of that said, I'm still not super crazy about unpaid internships. Like I said above, if we take on any intern(s) we are looking to pay them.