Will Unpaid Internships Be A Thing Of The Past?

With the current unemployment rate in the United States at 7.6 percent, college students are keeping a firm grip on their summer internships, hoping that it will lead to the sweet sounds of employment come graduation.

With the competition as tough as ever, students and recent graduates are willing to take any job available in their field of interest – even if it’s unpaid. It’s the “experience” that makes a 12-week intern program worth it.

When students are so desperate that they’ll do almost anything for a chance to get a job, what’s to stop employers from exploiting these unpaid workers? In 2011, two interns who worked on the set of the Oscar-winning film “Black Swan” filed a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight claiming that the intern program overworked and exploited its interns.

According to “Intern Justice,” a website devoted to providing legal services to interns wishing to purse lawsuits, unpaid internships are becoming increasingly popular.

The home page of the website says that “this new style of unpaid internships is often of little practical benefit to the intern, amounting to what some have termed ‘slave labor,’ but of great assistance to the employer.”

While “slave labor” may be what it feels like at times, many students are still willing to accept an unpaid position. A rising senior in LAS at the University of Illinois , who will remain anonymous, is currently working as an unpaid intern, but realizes the importance of the lessons she is learning throughout the summer months.

“I’m getting a lot of experience doing legitimate tasks and projects,” said the student. She quickly adds, “but it’s unfortunate not getting paid to do so.”

Another student, who will also remain anonymous, has had six internships in her college career and knows what it’s like to work for free.

”You have to work extremely long hours that are never set,” said this student. “You work hard and have little opportunity to break into the business straight from an internship.”

Unpaid interns everywhere rallied behind Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, the unpaid interns who sued Fox Searclight, as they took on the Hollywood giant to demand justice for students trying to get jobs around the country.  Early this month, Judge William H. Pauley ruled in favor of the interns saying that Fox Searchlight abused their unpaid help and was acting as an “employer” in this situation, and therefore owed the interns pay.

Glatt is hoping that his case can be a step in what he considers the right direction.

“I want to see the practice ended,” Glatt told The Huffington Post. “I think unpaid internships are extremely detrimental to the labor market, and especially pernicious in creative industries.”

While unpaid interns are struggling to change the culture, some students have been fortunate enough to secure the coveted paid internship. Taylor Higgins and Rachel Boris, both seniors at U of I, are both having very positive experiences in their paid internships. Even if their tasks aren’t the most exciting, both women are enjoying their experiences.

“Everyone starts at the bottom, so if I tell myself that, then I really don’t mind it at all,” said Higgins.

Boris is taking lessons from her paid internship and hoping to apply them to her desired career in the future.

“[The department I’m in] is not ultimately where I would like to be, but the skills I learn here will transfer,” Boris said. “I have never had to wait on any full-time employees by getting them coffee or anything.”

Reportedly, Fox is attempting to appeal the case, unwilling to let this one stand as a precedent for the hundreds of other interns that they will have in the future.

As a result of the “Black Swan” trial, the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division has come out with six criteria that are used in determining whether or not an unpaid internship is fair for all parties.

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.

Thousands of college students accept unpaid internships every year, and the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division hopes these interns have safe and educational experiences.