12 Jun The End of Unpaid Internships?

New York federal Judge William H. Pauley III may have started the end of most unpaid internships. In a decision yesterday, he ruled in favor of two Fox movie interns who were emptying garbage and getting coffee for no money. He basically followed US Department of Labor guidelines which state that the internship has to be similar to vocational education, can’t be for the “immediate advantage” of the employer (what does this even mean?), the intern’s work can’t replace that of a regular employee and the experience must be “for the benefit of” the intern. The judge also made clear that even getting college credit does not allow you to have someone work for free.

Fox said they intend to appeal. There are also several other bigger pending class action cases alleging the same. Pres. Obama has been talking about this for awhile, feeling that many mostly younger people are taken advantage of in unpaid intern jobs.

I respectfully disagree, to a point. I think unpaid internships should be allowed where you are providing valuable training, even where the work might be menial. If you can honestly say you would not have paid someone to do the work, and you’re giving someone an opportunity they otherwise would not have had, there should be a way to do that. And it allows someone to get a foot in the door somewhere that can lead to a real job that would not have been available. That said, it may be that these lawsuits will bring an end to a very common and widespread practice in almost all industries.