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

