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Work in Progress is a column about finding your way in the working world. Have a question for Rainesford Stauffer? Send it to TVworkinprogress@gmail.com.
Ah, internships: a time for exploring new interests, hands-on learning, and…exploitation?
Not always. But often. Data from the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates somewhere between 31% and 58% of internships in the United States don’t pay. But internships are still considered a must-have for a well-rounded résumé (multiple years of experience for an entry-level job, anyone?) and are sometimes an academic requirement. Often, they mirror broader workforce inequities, raising questions about whose labor, time, and knowledge have value. While “blame the intern” quips still pop up on social media, unpaid internships are a legitimate labor issue.
“When I started working as an unpaid intern, paying your dues felt expected,” Massachusetts representative Ayanna Pressley, whose congressional office only offers paid internships, tells Teen Vogue. Especially in politics, working for free was the norm, she says, adding that she did gain essential experience. “But I am so glad that culturally we are shifting away from unpaid labor under the guise of 'experience.' It is opening up opportunities to folks who need to be at every decision-making table.”
Offering unpaid internships impacts who can take which opportunities, and this often impacts who ends up in a given field. According to Matthew T. Hora, codirector of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, most discussions about internships overlook three critical issues: First, a good internship program is difficult to design and implement, and too little attention is paid to supervision, quality of tasks, and student development; second, there just aren’t enough good internship placements for students in the U.S.; and third, too many students can’t take an internship due to lack of time, money, connections, or knowledge, “so making them mandatory is not yet a fair or reasonable step to take,” Hora points out.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that between 2020 and 2021, the majority of students who took part in internships identified as white and male. “There is a cost of working for free,” Carlos Mark Vera, cofounder of Pay Our Interns, tells Teen Vogue. “We're shifting that burden on young people, [who], as is, have to worry about paying for school.” (And it’s worth noting, not all interns are young adults; some interns are completing college credits later in life or interning in order to switch careers.)
“Asking — or making — college students of all ages to work for free is…simply unethical,” Hora says.
Below, we unpack why unpaid internships persist — and what to do if you’re asked to work for free.
Higher ed has been complicit
The overlap between education and work makes internships tricky. To comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guidelines, unpaid internships — any that are paid less than a minimum wage and do not constitute employment — have to meet certain factors, Carrie Shandra, associate professor of sociology at the State University of New York Stony Brook, tells Teen Vogue. Many employers Shandra has interviewed require that students receive academic credit in an effort to comply with the FLSA. “But employers don't give academic credit; colleges do,” Shandra clarifies. “This means that students must be enrolled in a college class to be eligible for an internship.” The FLSA guidelines are tricky, Shandra says, and there’s no formal internship law in the United States.
“So you're paying your school, and that is providing legal cover to employers,” Vera explains. “And universities are staying quiet because it's an additional revenue stream for them at the expense of their own students.”
College credit isn’t compensation — and if an internship requires credit and is unpaid, it can hit students with a “double whammy,” Hora says. “They have to pay the college for tuition for that credit-bearing course, and then they have to work (and take time away from school, life, and paid work) to work for free.”
There are entire academic courses of study — including social work, counseling, and teaching, to name a few — where students have to work a certain number of unpaid hours in the field to complete their degree. Payment for Placements (P4P), a group started by University of Michigan Masters of Social Work students, is organizing around the need to compensate students for their required internship work.
Vera also thinks unpaid internships exacerbate student debt. “There's already research that shows Black and Latino students are graduating with more debt [than their white peers],” he says. “I would argue part of it is when they're doing these unpaid internships or taking out additional loans to [afford to] live for the summer.”
How part-time work factors in
There’s still debate over whether someone’s job should count as internship credit, but some people are working a part-time job and an internship. “Far too often, tiers and structures are imposed to try to devalue people’s work,” says Rep. Pressley. “All workers deserve living wages, consistent schedules, and adequate benefits — regardless of whether they work part-time or full-time.”
Says Vera, adequate pay is also a matter of protection for interns: Interns can be susceptible to exploitation, racial discrimination, disability discrimination, and sexual harassment, but in order to have employee protections, you have to be an employee, he explains — and the litmus test for being an employee is payment. “When you're not getting paid, in essence, [you] have no protections. For the protection of the individual, people need to pay.”
“If an employment relationship does not exist for unpaid or underpaid internships, interns aren’t protected by federal workplace protections,” Shandra says. “Worker’s compensation and reasonable accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act also don’t apply. Some states, like New York, have instituted additional protections for unpaid interns,” she adds. “Many have not.”
Hora notes that “the data on internship participation in the U.S., in general, and student experiences with internships is very poor,” flagging that surveys or studies about discrimination often undercount the phenomenon.
As for the whole “pay your dues” mentality, there’s a difference between having to learn a field and being exploited, abused, or overworked. “You’re doing this for the experience” doesn’t cancel that out. You can do basic tasks and be compensated equitably for that work.
Avalon Fenster, a current intern who founded Internship Girl, says there is a place for interns in the labor movement, especially because, for many high schoolers and college students, internships are considered a point of entry into the workforce. “Unpaid or exploitative internships [exist] in nearly every industry,” Fenster says, noting that even workplaces with “positive” cultures leave interns feeling drained when they aren’t paid or appropriately recognized. Abolishing unpaid internships means thinking bigger about protections and quality of life for workers overall.
So, should I work for free?
Whenever someone asks me if they should work for free, my fingers practically pound on my laptop keys as I emphatically type “No!” (Though I have, of course, done unpaid labor at various points in my career.) While the “Is it worth it?” question is personal and circumstantial, no one should have to work for free; working for free shouldn’t be a sign of your commitment.
If you find yourself with an unpaid internship offer, Vera suggests reaching out to the employer to at least ask for a minimum stipend to cover food and travel. It’s helpful to get practice, Vera says, because eventually you’ll use this skill for salary negotiation. Next, reach out to your school to see if there are any funds or grants available — something Vera did when he interned at the White House — which, for the the fist time, will offer paid internships starting this fall. (Still, this isn’t an option for everyone. For example, Vera says, some community colleges simply don’t have access to funds for this, which is an equity issue in and of itself.)
Finally, if you can, avoid unpaid internships. From a personal standpoint, it's obvious why, but companies also have little incentive to change a payment system if there's “a reliable supply of students willing to work for free,” Vera points out.
Once you’re interning…
Fenster encourages interns to use their position to bring about change in the workplace and promote new ideas. “Interns can often feel like they are a rather useless cog in a giant machine,” Fenster says. “Don’t be afraid to contribute — that’s what you’re there for.”
Internships should be an opportunity to figure out what you’re truly passionate about, what you’re good at, and what you like. If possible, discuss with your supervisor what you would most like to get from the experience and set goals accordingly. An internship should be most beneficial to the intern.
“Your lived experiences and your contributions matter,” Rep. Pressley says when asked for advice to give young people in the early stages of their career. “Don’t pass up the formal resources available to you through your union or your workplace. Stay humble, stay hungry, and know your worth. There is a lot to learn and a lot of meaningful work ahead of you.”
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