You, Too, Can Get Paid by An Unpaid Internship

In the days of apprenticeships, the apprentice was provided with food, lodging, & clothing. And with transportation costs, interns today are in effect paying to work.

When I started working in 197, I got a job as a trainee computer programmer. Employers in those days were able to afford to hire trainees. Why are businesses today so incompetent that they can only operate with unpaid labor? Even in medieval times, apprentices were provided with food, lodging, and clothes. Today, with transportation costs, interns have to pay their employers.

But companies can afford to pay many times as much to its executives.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/05/11/You-Too-Can-Get-Paid-Unpaid-Internship

BY KARA BRANDEISKY, ProPublica
May 11, 2014

At ProPublica, we've heard from a lot of unpaid interns. You've told us about walking your boss's dog, fact-checking for magazines and even doing the same work as federal prosecutors — all for little or no pay.

If you think you might be entitled to minimum wage for your work, you have legal options. Here are a few resources you should know about.

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The Labor Department says if you are interning at a for-profit company, your employer needs to pay you at least minimum wage if any of these things are true:

Know the Labor Department's Guidelines
--your internship does not resemble an educational environment
--the internship is not for your benefit
--you displace regular employees
--your employer derives immediate benefit from your work
--your employer promised you a paid job at the end of your unpaid internship
--your employer promised you wages

Are you interning for academic credit? That doesn't necessarily make unpaid internships legal.

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The Labor Department hasn't investigated many unpaid internships because it's waiting for interns to file complaints — something they are generally reluctant to do. But when the agency does investigate, it often finds that interns should have been paid minimum wage.

The upside of filing a complaint: They are confidential. The Labor Department shouldn't tell your boss you filed a complaint or whether a complaint even exists.

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The downside: Technically, even if the Labor Department decides you are owed back wages, the agency can't force your employer to pay you. Your employer could refuse to comply. ProPublica found at least one case where the Labor Department declined to sue a company after it refused to pay back wages to its former interns. If the department doesn't step in, interns can try to win back wages by filing a lawsuit on their own.

ProPublica obtained case files for 16 Labor Department investigations into internships in sports management, journalism and physical therapy, among other industries. Use our site to see if the department has already investigated an internship like yours and whether investigators found wage violations.

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