An article in the New York Times Friday explores the growth of unpaid internships and that the US Department of Labor has begun to prosecute internship programs that violate minimum wage laws. In particular, internships that displace paid workers or do not include vocational or academic training can run afoul of laws, that until recently have rarely been enforced because interns rarely complain.
Have you had an unpaid internship? Did it break the laws outlined in the article? Should the Department of Labor continue to crack down on unpaid internships and will this make finding summer work harder?
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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2 comments:
Nice of the Daily Princetonian to note the NYT articles, but college papers could follow the issue much more closely.
We have been running a blog for almost four years on this issue.
http://www.unfairinternships.com
Not only today is there a rising issue with so-called "Unpaid Internships" but light should also be shed on a new phenomenon that is that of the "Eternal Internship"...
Many of us, part of the summer 2008 and 2009 graduating classes were unfortunately incredibly hard-hit by the smack of the recession and the rise in unemployment...
Eager to gain experience and hopeful to one day find jobs, we thus, entered an endless cycle of "Eternal Internships"...one after another in hopes of finally reaching "Eternal Employment"...
It seems as though there is finaly a little light at the end of the tunnel, but times have been tough and the "Eternal Issue" phenomemon is not one to be ignored (often coupled with the 'unpaid' phenomenon - double whamy!).
If you want to check our story out (my story as well as that of two friends), please check us out at : www.the-eternal-intern.blogspot.com.
We span 2 continents, 3 different cities, 3 different industries...and yet we are still restricted by this Eternal Intern phenomenon...
Flora
www.the-eternal-intern.blogspot.com
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