Where's My Coffee?

As a college student at the beginning of my higher-education-roadway-to-billionaire-status lifestyle, I have a myriad of depression-inducing options with which to fill my summer. I could backpack through Europe or enhance my Halo world ranking. I could work a menial minimum-wage job to attempt upsetting my precarious government grant status or, most intriguing of all I could work a menial minimum-wage job without sniffing the sweet stench of that $6.50 per hour paycheck. In other words, or rather another word, internship!

I know it sounds like sunshine and daisies all summer long, but perhaps there is a drawback not only to myself, but to our society as a whole. Maybe all that sunshine will simply make a desert. At least that is what Steven Greenhouse hypothesizes in his recent New York Times article, Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say. Greenhouse says that government officials from several states and even on the federal level are worried that employers are calling their minimum wage positions internships to cut costs without adhering to the federal legal criteria for unpaid internships.

The U.S. Department of Labor has outlined a list of criteria that potential unpaid internships must fulfill completely in order to be sanctioned: 1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school. 2. The training is for the benefit of the trainee 3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation. 4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded. 5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of the training period; and 6. The employer and the trainee understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training ()

Number 4 seems to be the foundation idea that the rest of the ignored rules sit upon. The benefit of an internship for an employer should be an investment in training a potential employee and increasing the number of qualified people to work in the industry, not an unpaid temporary slave. With respect to the “you gotta pay your dues, son” way of doing business, unpaid lackey work is not only illegal, it is unethical.

Employers who offer internships should look at those positions as investment opportunities. The more that they wisely invest, the greater the potential return should be. However, when a company skates the Department of Labor criteria they set themselves up for failure in the courtroom and future recruiting of quality employees. The California’s Private Attorney General Act allows anyone at the company to sue for labor violations, even if they themselves are not affected by the violation. That means it only takes one ethical bystander to keep companies from becoming nineteenth-century southern plantations. Other states would be wise to use similar laws.

A company’s reputation is incredibly valuable in every aspect of business. Take into consideration the expense that companies incur when managing public relations. When an employer treats its internship investments badly now, they naturally receive the dividends later. Maybe that talented, under-used intern becomes a valuable asset at a competitor. Maybe the coffer-gopher had a million dollar idea that was overlooked because he used too much cream and not enough sugar. Successful companies value potential and develop assets to become stronger together.

On second thought, Halo sounds a whole lot better than that internship anyways.

Works Cited

Franzen, Willy. "Are Unpaid Internships Illegal? | One Day, One Internship." Internships for College Students | One Day, One Internship. 07 Sept. 2008. Web. 02 Apr. 2010. .

Greenhouse, Steven. "Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 02 Apr. 2010. Web. 02 Apr. 2010. .

"Unpaid Internships - Common but Illegal." Labor and Employment Law Blog. 02 Apr. 2010. Web. 02 Apr. 2010. .