Growth of unpaid internships probably illegal

Found out this morning they couldn't get any real takers. Instead of the two paid college journalism students we traditionally have, we have one high school kid working here this summer for free --- it's the general manager's kid.

 

Hilarious. Maybe kids are getting smarter than I give them credit for. How much you want to be the general manager will be paying little Johnny the intern out of his own pocket? Good story, Johnny, here's 50 dollars.

 

When I attended a J-School Open House this past weekend, it listed available internships given to students and grads.

I found it slightly ironic two of those UNPAID internships were the New York Times Investigative Unit and New York Times Video.

And, unless I'm mistaken, it's not for credit. Actually, out of 17 highlighted internships, those were the only two that were unpaid.

 

Yes, internships go to the well connected -- even 8th graders:

 

No surprise, it does not look like a very diverse group:

 

My first newspaper internship (when I was in HS) was unpaid. I was answering prep calls and taking scores.

When they started having me take box scores and type the agate into the system they started paying me. What's funny is the $12 an hour I was getting in 1990 is more than most agate guys make now.

 

My shop got rid of interns completely 2-3 years ago, supposedly because the higher-ups felt not paying them could be a problem sometime down the road. The problem with an intern rights movement is that most companies are just going to dump them instead of paying them.

Local pro team has probably 100 unpaid interns and I can't get a kid to answer the phone 15 hours a week for college credit. I agree companies shouldn't be exploiting kids and you have to know when to say enough is enough, but I'm afraid this kind of thing will do more harm than good. One semester unpaid doesn't sound illegal to me.

 

ProPublica has reporters (paid interns, I believe) fanned out around the country looking at this. It should be a pretty good series.

Sheryl Sandberg, of Facebook and "Lean In" fame -- you know, women should spend more time at work, demand more money etc. -- got in hot water recently. Her foundation posted a Facebook notice that it was seeking an unpaid intern. Keep in mind she is a billionaire and had just sold stock for a $91 million profit in the previous week.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/15/lean_in_hypocrisy_sheryl_sandberg_org_is_hiring_an_unpaid_intern.html

The ad, posted by the foundation's editor, said "Wanted: Lean In editorial intern, to work with our editor (me) in New York. Part-time, unpaid, must be HIGHLY organized with editorial and social chops and able to commit to a regular schedule through end of year."

Then the shit hit the fan and the editor posted, "Dear What Appears To Be My Entire Facebook Feed: Want to clarify my previous Lean In post. This was MY post, on MY feed, looking for a volunteer to help me in New York. LOTS of nonprofits accept volunteers. This was NOT an official Lean In job posting. Let's all take a deep breath."

So in addition to being a terrible person, she's also a pretty bad editor to send her initial message out so off-point.

Anyway, the Lean In foundation has been shamed into providing paid internships. But don't worry, I'm sure they'll be paying low enough that only private-school daughters of industry titans will apply anyway.

 

Answering phones is clerical work. It's not educational, and a college shouldn't give credit for it.

If you have clerical work that needs to be done, hire someone.

This is exactly why its illegal.

An internship is supposed to be an opportunity to learn a trade. You can't assign an intern work to save money on what should be a paid position.

 

I'd argue while it is clerical work, it's also part of the trade in a lot of places. My shop puts me at about 10 hours a week doing some form of call answering, and that was after being told in the interview I'd only be helping a bit on busy nights.

I imagine I would have learned a good bit helping with phones, working around other reporters/editors in the office instead of getting assigned a story or two a week and doing most of the work out of the office.

 

Maybe it would be ok if answering phones was a small portion of the tasks an intern was assigned -- inline with paid journalists like yourself. If it's all they're asked to do, then they are just filling a clerical task.

 

I think I've got a different perspective. I would prefer to make nothing while doing something than the opposite. I'd rather agate, write a gamer, cover a house fire and go to a 5k for diabetes and not get paid than answer phones for $6/hr.

College is an investment in your future. And what better investment than covering a whole bunch of stuff for a paper / radio station / TV station. Look, I never had any money in college. I worked - at one point - at eight different jobs at the same time to make ends meet. And I took two unpaid internships, too. I worked like a DOG in college. And it taught me more about time management, budgeting and real life.

Sorry kids, everything in life isn't easy. The real world isn't easy. You want to get ahead? You have to earn it. Besides, so long as it is for credit, a student loan can be applied to it. Again, college is an investment. It's not for everyone.

We did away with traditional interns (do work, get experience, etc) where I'm at because we weren't allow to have them do "work" anymore. Now interns simply shadow different people on a rotating basis. So not only are they unpaid, they aren't gaining any skills.

What is the point in that?

The idea: "Interns have a chance to learn from each person in the newsroom"
The outcome: "Interns learn nothing because very few people learn about how to DO a job by watching someone else do it"

Just my two cents.