For students around the country, a term off from college has long brought the specter of work without pay. With an unpaid internship, students can build professional skills but sacrifice the opportunity to work for wages.
But this summer, a California court ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures must pay its interns, and a lawsuit was filed in New York against Conde Nast, a media company that owns 24 magazines, including GQ, The New Yorker and Vogue. Just weeks ago, Conde Nast announced it would no longer hire any unpaid interns, though the case remains in court.
Companies have offered unpaid internships for decades, but national increases in student debt, paired with a decline in paid internships as a result of economic instability, have caused unpaid internships to come under new scrutiny, Center for Professional Development associate director Monica Wilson said. While center director Roger Woolsey hesitated to predict internships’ future, he said “the unpaid internship is here to stay,” even if the economy rebounds.
“It’s more than just the economy that’s driving this,” Woolsey said, citing new technology that reduces need for labor and leaner management.
Woolsey and Wilson said internships were “imperative” for job seekers, arguing that employers look for practical application of skills and “experiential learning.”
“You shouldn’t look at internships as an end,” Wilson said. “It’s a means to an ongoing process, where you learn more about what you like and don’t like in work, in a culture, an environment.”
Wilson said she was unable to provide exact figures, but believes most Dartmouth students take paid internships.
In 2010, the Department of Labor released six guidelines to help companies determine whether to pay interns. The center could not monitor every student internship to determine if it followed federal guidelines. Since unpaid internships at government agencies are well-regulated, they likely meet the guidelines, Wilson said.
If internships only benefit employers, they should be paid. The only internships that would, by the federal guidelines, require payment are positions that are not in any way educational. Filing or mechanical work meets that description.
Unpaid internships should be thought of as “apprenticeships,” Wilson said.
“Over the course of your seven weeks there, you should be feeling as though they’re treating it as an educational experience,” she said.
Students who believe their employers violated any laws regulating the workplace can contact the center, which may decide to drop the employer from corporate recruiting on campus, Woolsey said.
Critics of unpaid internships have contended that not all students can afford to work for educational purposes only — an internship at the Capitol might be interesting, but a paid position frying burgers is more lucrative.
As one potential remedy, the center is attempting to increase sources of funding for unpaid internships on campus, Wilson said. Although the initiative remains in its early stages, the center may seek alumni and third party funding to support unpaid internships.
“With unpaid internships, we have to really look at ways in which we can support students who otherwise could not afford taking these opportunities,” Woolsey said. “It’s something we want to do pretty quickly, if we can.”
Woolsey and Wilson emphasized that internship funding does exist on campus, citing the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Dickey Center for International Understanding. Other institutions that offer funding for unpaid internships are the Institute for Security, Technology, and Society and the Tucker Foundation.
Rockefeller Center program coodinator Thanh Nguyen said the center granted up to $4,000 to 50 students pursuing public policy internships in 2012 and 60 in 2011.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve allowed for students go for nonprofits and government,” he said. “For-profit institutions should be able to support their labor.”
Nguyen declined to say how much funding the Rockefeller Center granted to students each year and how many applicants were declined funding.
“There is an unmet need,” he said, noting that some applicants overlapped with the Dickey Center.
Despite the developments outside Hanover, many students remain convinced of unpaid internships’ value.
Emily Tregidgo ’16, who worked two unpaid internships this summer, said internships’ educational worth outweighed the lack of pay.
Carene Mekertichyan ’16 worked in Washington, D.C. through the Rockefeller Center’s First-Year Fellows program and said her experience was educational and that interns do not deserve pay.
“If you’re an intern, you’re there to learn,” she said. “You’re not as skilled as the other people that are in paid positions.”
Erin Abraham ’14, who worked two media internships during previous off-terms, said that media internships were competitive despite not paying as much as internships in other industries.
“I don’t really have the opportunity to pick and choose as much,” she said. “You’re forced to be okay with that state.”
Abraham said that since she completed the work of paid employees during her second internship, which granted her a stipend below the minimum wage, she should have been paid for her labor.
Dartmouth does not offer or provide credit for internships. Some internships were offered for credit only, so Dartmouth students could only apply to a smaller pool of internships, Abraham said.
Woolsey said that internships offered for credit can be a more structured experience for students. Both Woolsey and Wilson said they did not know why the College did not offer credit for internships.
Jessica Ke ’15 is working a paid internship away from her home. She was only able to accept the position away from home because the internship is paid, she said.
