This article analyzes the popularity of unpaid internships especially as employment opportunities for young people continues to dwindle. Following the recent recession, many firms continue to offer unpaid internships to cut costs while still receiving free labor in exchange. Many states are investigating the minimum wage laws and suspect that unpaid internships fall under that category. More specifically, for economics majors looking to work at for-profit financial firms, there is very little justification for for-profit firms to offer unpaid internships. This will be particularly useful for us as we search for internships over the summer.
4 comments:
This is a relevant article because many of us have held unpaid internships to gain experience in the field. It does seem unfair that unpaid internships are becoming more popular because some people cannot afford to have an unpaid summer internship, especially not one where you may or may not be learning something from the experience. It is even more unfair to think that employers are willing not to pay young people to save money in this economy, especially employers at for-profit firms.
I agree. There are supposed to be really strict guidelines as to what qualifies as an internship (as far as the experience making up for not being paid). I feel like these guidelines have kind of fallen by the wayside and that companies are using interns as free labor. As a college student, I feel as if they are preying on the needs of me and other students to set ourselves apart in the job search process. But like aemiller said, not everyone can afford to work for free, so it really hurts those students that need to be paid.
Unpaid internships have become more common but another reason for that is that people are scared that they won't find a job and an internship may increase future job prospects whether it is a paid or an unpaid. I know people who are willingly taking unpaid internships because they feel its worthwhile;however employers are taking advantage of this.
Just like everyone has stated, it is true that with this current economy, students and even college graduates are willing to have unpaid internships because its either that or nothing. Most employers are also taking advantage of that while students and graduates hope to get employed sometime in the future.
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