Article Index: Career Coach | Life at Work | WorkWise
Sunday, July 25, 2010
What's an Internship Worth?
Internships have long been touted as good experience and a worthy résumé boost. Whether interns should work for no pay, however, is an increasingly hot topic.
Unless for-profit employers meet certain standards, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that interns must be paid at least minimum wage with compensation for overtime.
"How interns are treated is important," says Ross Eisenbrey, president of the Economic Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. "Students who can't afford to work for free are denied career opportunities, and interns are sometimes exploited, working without pay yet receiving no instruction or education." An EPI study, "Not-So-Equal Protection," documented the common use of unpaid interns by for-profit, private-sector businesses that often fail to meet internship requirements.
Whether an intern must be paid is determined through a six-point test developed by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor. Among the criteria used to determine if an intern's work qualifies for unpaid status:
• The internship must similar to training given in an educational environment.
• An intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision.
• The employer derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern.
• The intern is not entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
More information is available at the Department of Labor website. Go to http://www.dol.gov/whd. Under Resources, click on Factsheets and scroll to Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act, #71.
Copyright © CTW Features
