California Labor Dept. Revises Guidelines on When Interns Must Be Paid
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: April 9, 2010
RelatedCalifornia’s labor department has issued updated guidelines on whether internships should be paid or unpaid, with the new rules giving employers slightly more latitude not to pay them.
The Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not(April 3, 2010)
In an advisory letter to a program that teaches information technology, the department’s top lawyer reinterpreted the criteria on compensation for internships, and, in a nod to employers, said interns need not always be paid when they do some of the same work as regular employees.
Many wage and hour regulators maintain that interns must be paid if their work is of “immediate advantage” to the employer, but the California agency’s top lawyer advised that such an advantage can be offset — and the intern not be paid — if the employer provides close supervision and lays out money for training.
Over all, the guidance from the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement was emphatic that for internships to be unpaid, they must be educational and predominantly
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