Editorial and Dissent: Unpaid internship programs
Work experience, which for undergraduates usually comes in the form of internships, has increasingly become a prerequisite for securing a job after graduation. Many of these internships, including some of those at for-profit companies, are unpaid. A recent article in The New York Times discussed how unpaid internships at for-profit companies must meet six criteria — which are often difficult to fulfill — in order to be legal, noting that regulators in some states are now cracking down on the proliferation of illegal unpaid internships despite students’ interest in them. The U.S. Department of Labor’s six criteria should be changed so that companies can continue to offer unpaid internships without facing a significant burden.
Internships are designed to be a form of educational work experience. Thus, the best internships are those in which students learn about an industry or type of job by engaging in the kind of work they would do as an employee. One of the requirements for unpaid internships, however, is that the work not be of any immediate benefit to the employer, essentially making the position of little
