8 ms·

Unpaid internships are bullshit. If they want you to work a 40 hour workweek, then they need to fucking pay minimum wage at a minimum.

• shardling 13y ago
  They're also generally quite illegal for exactly that reason. There's a list of requirements you need to meet to not pay an intern, and it's actually pretty stringent. The problem is most interns feel they're not in a position to actually do anything about this. :( Most could probably sue for back wages if they didn't fear reprisal. NYTimes did an article on this a bit ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pag... On a similar note I've seen the same thing with servers: employers will pay below minimum wage even for hours that tips don't make up the difference, or dock pay for customers that run out. Both of those are against the law (at least in my state) but employees fear that they'll be fired if they speak up. (The flip side is that they generally don't report cash tips on their taxes.)