With a struggling economy that has left many employers with less-than-ideal finances, unpaid internships for college students have become increasingly common. The Department of Labor, however, has begun to make an effort to ensure employers treat unpaid interns fairly.
A statement recently released by the department defined employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act and provided a set of criteria to establish whether an unpaid internship operates fairly and legally.
For-profit companies must meet six criteria to employ unpaid interns legally. For example, the employer must offer training similar to what students experience in an educational environment, and the internship must benefit the intern without displacing regular employees. Internships that do not meet these criteria must be paid.
But such regulations are not always easy to enforce, in part because the Department of Labor cannot police all employers' pay practices across the United States, Law School Prof. J.H. Verkerke stated in an e-mail.
In addition, it is difficult to hold employers accountable because unpaid interns who feel they are not working under fair conditions may be afraid to report such infractions.
"Although the applicable statute also allows private parties to sue for damages, doing so would require unpaid interns to complain about their treatment and participate in a lawsuit," Verkerke said.\nSuch a route generally is unfeasible, he said, because of the cost of filing a lawsuit and because interns may fear being labeled as troublemakers.
In fact, no University students filed complaints regarding unpaid internships to University Career Services, said Jim McBride, the office's executive director.
Fourth-year College student Travis Hodges said he did not encounter any problems with fairness during his unpaid internship last summer, adding that his experience was successful overall and allowed him to create a freelance role for himself.
If he had any complaints, Hodges said, they would be in regards to the menial work involved in the internship.
"When it came to tedious tasks, sometimes it would be frustrating," he said. "But even if you have a job with a salary, you can feel like that."
Fourth-year Engineering student Erin Klein compared her paid and unpaid internship experiences.
"For the paid internship, I felt like an employee," she said. "I was tangibly accountable for XYZ ... For the unpaid, I didn't feel like I was accountable for very much."
In addition, her paid internship included a program, classes and a project, Klein said, which gave her a much higher feeling of involvement in comparison to her unpaid experience.\nNevertheless, Klein noted that the lower involvement in the unpaid internship was not intentional.
"It's not like they mistreated me," she said. "They were really glad to have an extra person to help out."
If students in an unpaid, University-sponsored internship believe the criteria for fairness are not being met, they are encouraged to talk to the University officials in charge of the program, Verkerke said.
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