It was hardly surprising that SDNY Judge William H. Pauley III held that unpaid internships were unlawful in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures. It's one of those concepts that don't fall neatly into the world of law, like why football should be a monopoly or why waiters at Wo Hops should have to be Chinese. Yet they are.
There has to be something, some benefit, like college credit, in return for the hard labor of being an intern. And there have to be internships because there is no other way for young people to get their foot in the door, their first break. After all, who would hire these kids, utterly lacking in any skill worthy of compensation?
Aside from fetching coffee and carrying the trial bag, they're a royal pain in the butt, always asking questions and expecting people to acknowledge their existence.
There is an exception in the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows for internships, but its criteria require that an employer derive no benefit whatsoever from the intern, and in fact, that it suffers for their being present. That's an absurd burden, as merely fetching coffee confers a benefit on the employer and, seriously, why would any business suffer an intern who was nothing but a total drain.
And so, we have a paradox. Kids need a chance to learn, to show their stuff, to get some experience if by doing nothing more than observing how the real world happens. Businesses are willing to let them hang around provided they neither get too much in the way and do those little things that contribute something. And bang, we've got a violation of law.
No doubt there are businesses that take gross advantage of interns. After all, Skippy is all too happy to do whatever he's told, hoping and praying that he will impress the crap out of someone and be found sufficiently indispensable to get a real job. If nothing else, when Skippy is ready for the real world, he's got something to put on his resume other than Glee Club treasurer, which isn't as impressive to potential employers as he may think.
Yet without internships, young people have few options available to get some insight into the real world of their chosen/hopeful occupation and to put some meat on the bones of their resume. They need internships, because nobody is going to pay them to hang around for a couple of months to fetch coffee.
If interns are forced labor, slaves to the practical economy, then lack of internship opportunities means young people send out indistinguishable cover letters begging for a chance to prove themselves without any hope of offering anything of value besides their willingness to show up.
We need internships. We need unpaid internships. We need to give young people an opportunity to learn their craft, to impress potential future employers, to show they can do the job they hope to hold for years to come. And if internships must be paid, they aren't internships and the they aren't worth it.
The Daily Beast covers whether Judge Pauley's decision will have an impact, dissuade employers from taking on unpaid interns and put an end to the hopes and dreams of young people.
There are no hard numbers on how many unpaid interns are working in U.S. movie studios, fashion houses, and newsrooms. A 2008 study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 50 percent of graduating seniors had an internship; it is estimated that as many as one half of them are unpaid. New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are besieged by young interns at the start of the summer, especially in creative industries such as film, media, and fashion. “It’s places that have a certain appeal, a certain glamour, and so students and young people are willing to go through hardship to get their foot in the door,” said EPI’s Eisenbrey.
Is the pipeline over? There are some who find the ruling legally uneventful, more of an invitation for big companies to fuss with the details to make their internships appear more legally compliant. But that does nothing for small companies, who don't have departments to handle such things, or for companies who really just don't care enough to jump through those hoops. After all, who wants to invite a lawsuit?
With tuition costs increasing alongside student debt, would-be interns may start to decide that their services must be compensated. And the ruling this week comes on the heels of a number of cases about unpaid internships, including the Hearst case and another against talk-show host Charlie Rose’s production company.
Can't you hear it now, interns grumbling about the value of their efforts? It's not enough that they get the opportunity to intern, but how they aren't sufficiently "appreciated" once they're on the inside? Of course, if they're not one of the lucky ones to land a gig, they will whine about how there aren't enough unpaid internships to let them get their foot in the door. Logical consistency isn't big among the young these days.
“Giving young people a shot to learn the ropes has gone off the rails,” said Ross Perlin, the author of Intern Nation, a critical look at the practice. “There are record levels of youth unemployment, people are saddled with debt, and there is a general sense of malaise and downward mobility among young people. These internships are just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
He's got a point. The problem is that the only things worse than unpaid internships for businesses that "abuse" their interns by expecting them to actually do something are no internships at all. Just ask those kids sitting on the couch in their parents' basement whether they feel sufficiently valued by their half-eaten bag of Cheetos.
Are unpaid internships wrong and abusive? Perhaps. The alternative, however, is that young people find themselves with a lot of unpaid free time on their hands and no way to either learn or get a chance. So Judge Pauley's decision may well be a proper application of law, but this win for the intern is going to do an awful lot of harm to many who would give their left arm for the chance to get something to put on their resume.
And as graduation season comes to its conclusion, I wish all the graduates the best of luck in finding a suitable paid position now that your options just took a nosedive. It's a problem on both sides, but sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
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Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/06/15/practical-experience.aspx?ref=rss
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