In my problem proposal, one of the issues I addressed was the proliferation of unpaid internships. This is a tricky area, as unpaid internships are an important experience gathering component of a rapidly changing workforce. However, I argued the proliferation of unpaid internships are a great harm to the growth of the workplace, they only perpetuate greed. As a result, I feel like the idea of internships, the laws enforcing them, and the use of internships to replace/hold paid positions should all be revisited, addressed, and redefined. After all, internships are meant to give experience and benefit to the intern, not the employee. Let’s bring it back to that standard.
The first solution would be to address the Fair Labors Standards Act of 1938, specifically the segment dealing with internships. According to the article, “The Internship Rip-Off” by Alex Williams, this act states that it: “requires employers to pay everyone — not just official employees, but anyone whom they ‘suffer or permit to work.’ Purely educational positions are exempt from this requirement, but to qualify, an internship has to exist for the exclusive benefit of the intern” (Williams 1). How many internships were one goes to fetch coffee and lunch everyday exist for the benefit of the intern? What kind of workplace experience and knowledge does that bring relevant to his career choice, besides the common human woes of hunger during lunch time? I feel that many businesses may take advantage of this educational exemption without properly training the interns. In order for this to be rectified, there should be a very clear check list that exists that qualifies as a “educational position” and an overseer by labor unions and/or federal employees (given this is a federal law) to investigate these positions. A harder criteria can mean a growth in purely educational positions, rather than internships that replace paid positions.
Next, I feel that the internship selection criteria should be altered, and educational positions should only be limited to those in schooling. Any person in a undergrad, grad, or even high school system should be the only individuals who can qualify to apply for educational positions, so that individuals who are post graduates can find paid jobs and internships. This is where a change in the structure must occur. If there is a proliferation of internships, paid internships should be the norm, not educational, free labor ones. These educational ones should be small in number, and again, only available to those in schooling, who are more likely able to need experience more than anything else, and can forgo pay. In the article, “All Work and No Payoff” by Alex Williams, the author makes the argument that millennials feel trapped in an endless cycle of unpaid internships,and create a “revolving class of people” trapped under “the intern glass ceiling” (Williams 1). However, as abstract as changing the system may seem, there are prime examples of such, like the development and use of fellowships instead of internships. In David Carr’s article, “Overlook the Value of Interns at Great Peril,” he cites the example of Atlantic Media, a publication that ended all unpaid internships and replaced them with year long fellowships that “had meaningful tasks, an educational component, a living wage attached and, get this, health insurance” (Carr 1). And whats more, is that this change has been good for the company as well, as Atlantic Media has grown 34% since making this decision. It is obvious that unpaid internships are not the required stepping stone to success, and this over dependency on them, which leads to extortion of working citizens is a definite issue in the workforce. For it to end, limitations and rule enforcement must be placed over internships, in order to foster a strong, paid workforce, and alternative methods, like fellowships, should be considered, especially if they provide more benefit to the worker and the company.
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I agree that unpaid educational positions should legally be limited to school settings. I think that banning unpaid internships in business settings will not only prevent the exploitation of interns, but also reduce the current trend of companies decreasing training for new employees and instead looking to hire only people who already have the skills that they want. Decreasing employee training is problematic because it makes it difficult for companies to fill positions because they struggle to find employees with the exact skill sets that they want. It also makes it difficult for people who are new to the workforce and have limited skills to find jobs. Thus, this trend leads to increased unemployment and decreased productivity. I believe that banning unpaid internships in business settings can help reverse this new tendency to reduce employee training because many companies now expect that young people will gain the skills and experience necessary to qualify for their job openings via unpaid internships. If these types of internships are banned, people who are new to the workforce will have no means of gaining the work experience that companies want for entry-level positions. Eventually, as the number of potential employees who have the exact skills that companies want dwindles, companies will have no choice but to go back to hiring people without experience and begin training them themselves.