Should unpaid internships be illegal?

employers are violating minimum wage laws set out by the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor has clear guidelines to assist private employers in determining whether they should offer unpaid internships. Those guidelines include factors such as whether the internship benefits the intern, that the intern does not replace the role of a regular staff member, and that the experience he or she receives is similar to the training that would be given in an educational setting. However, these guidelines were called into question in July, when Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Entertainment Group lost a lawsuit that two interns had filed against the company. The ruling indicated that whether an intern benefits more or less from the internship than the employer is too subjective to be a legitimate guideline on the basis of pay, and that if the company receives an advantage due to the intern’s work, then the intern should be paid for that work. Despite all these lawsuits, not all interns are in consensus about whether unpaid internships should be illegal. Some believe that all internships should be paid at least minimum wage, while others believe that unpaid internships are fine so long as parameters — such as length of time commitment and hours to be worked — are set prior to the start of the internship.]]>