The Case of the Unpaid Intern

When NFL Network reporter Jane Slater tweeted about an unpaid internship earlier this year, she thought she was spotlighting a great opportunity for broadcast journalism students. What she didn’t expect, however, was to spark an international debate over the ethics of unpaid work and the culture surrounding them. 

Slater said that she completed three unpaid internships, had a job and double-majored while in college, and alluded to it being part of “the grind.” But several were quick to address her ability to do so as the granddaughter of the former president of Wolf Brand Chili. 

The conversation around unpaid internships isn’t new, but a growing force of people are calling out the illegality and immorality of them.  

“I had an unpaid internship, two jobs at once (sometimes three), a full course load and sometimes didn’t sleep for four days at a stretch,” tweeted freelance writer Ruby Irene Pratka. “It’s not a badge of honour, it’s a one way ticket to physical and/or mental breakdown.”

For students with little to no external financial support, unpaid internships just aren’t feasible and the promise of valuable experience isn’t enough to make it worthwhile. For racialized and marginalized students, this problem is even more prevalent. 

According to a 2019 National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, white students in the United States were more likely to be paid interns than unpaid or never interns. Meanwhile, African-American students are more likely to be unpaid interns and Hispanic-American students are more likely to never have an internship. 

All students, regardless of the existence of financial barriers, should be fairly compensated for their work, wrote Vanessa Quon, a journalism student at X University. 

“Companies that do not offer any form of compensation are receiving free labour from students in the name of education,” Quon said. 

The Job Search 

Hunting for internships can seem like a never-ending process and securing a paid opportunity may seem even more unlikely. 

According to Emma Hartley, career education specialist at The Creative School, the listed responsibilities are often not notably different between paid and unpaid internship postings. “However, there are always differences between internships on an individual level between fields, companies and even managers,” Hartley said.

“If a paid placement is your need or preference, there are resources available to aid your search: from your Internship Coordinator, to 1:1 advising with a career specialist, on-campus paid work through Career Boost, annual career fairs and our job board Magnet, where we only share paid opportunities,” Hartley said in relation to opportunities directed toward X University students. 

There are also a number of job boards and online niche networking groups, such as Facebook Groups, Discord or Slack channels, that post internships, according to Hartley.

It is the student’s responsibility to evaluate what career paths they want to learn more about and what skills they want to gain from their internship experience, then research the company and ask questions during the interview process to determine what’s the best fit for them, Hartley explained. 

As students continue their job hunt, they continue to raise questions over the concept of unpaid internships with the hope that paid compensation will one day become the norm. 

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