Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
6B
A
long
with
aca-
demics
and
extracurricu-
lars,
internships
are critical for students to
gain
workforce
skills
and
launch their career. Natu-
rally, this often creates a
problematic dynamic where
students
want
employment
more than employers need
student interns, which some-
times leads to students pay-
ing to work. With around 40
percent of national intern-
ship
opportunities
being
unpaid, it is sometimes dif-
ficult for students to accept
such opportunities as their
financial burden can some-
times outweigh their benefits.
According to the National
Association of Colleges and
Employers, hiring rates for
students who chose to com-
plete an unpaid internship
are only 2 percent higher than
those who did not acquire
an internship at all, appar-
ently offering only a small
benefit
for
students
who
took an unpaid internship.
This contrasts with another
study that found that 60 per-
cent of employers expressed
a preference for applicants
who have had internships.
According to the Depart-
ment
of
Labor’s
“primary
beneficiaries
test,”
unpaid
internships should only be
legal if it can be deemed that
the student is the primary ben-
eficiary of the intern-employer
relationship. This is measured
by comparing the unpaid work
to classroom activities, see-
ing that the student is com-
pensated via academic credit
and making sure there was no
understanding between the
student and employer that the
opportunity would be paid.
Nonetheless, a 2014 Pro-
Publica investigation found
that the Department of Labor
doesn’t
aggressively
pur-
sue complaints about wage
violations when the intern-
ships
are
unpaid,
as
the
department
only
pursues
exploitative employers after
On campus, students find some
support for unpaid internships
BY ANDREA PEREZ, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
A 2014 ProPublica investigation
found
that
the
Department
of
Labor doesn’t aggressively pursue
complaints about wage violations
when
internships
are
unpaid.
ALEC COHEN/DAILY