Do Unpaid Internships Exploit College Students?

            These Are Not Your Father’s Internships                            Ross Perlin , a researcher for the Himalayan Languages Project in southwest China, is the author of " Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy ."


The damage is everywhere. Youth unemployment hovers above 18 percent, near an all-time high. The entry-level job is fast becoming an endangered species. A whole generation of twentysomethings feels adrift — crushed by debt, living with their parents, delaying traditional milestones of adulthood, unable to become independent stakeholders in society. Meanwhile, the labor of unpaid interns has quietly replaced or displaced untold thousands of workers. Lucrative and influential professions — politics, media and entertainment, to name a few — now virtually require a period of unpaid work, effectively barring young people from less privileged backgrounds.

There are even broader effects of the internship boom: constricted social and professional mobility, growing inequality, and an economy whose top tier is becoming less and less diverse. Even more seriously, a fundamental ethic in American life is under threat: the idea that a hard day’s work demands a fair wage.

Great internships still exist — paid positions transparently advertised and filled, stepping stones to full-time jobs, opportunities genuinely focused on education and training. But the rash of illegal, exploitative situations has destroyed any notion that internships are inherently “win-win.”