

Unpaid Interns are Exploited? - uuilly
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/05/unpaid_interns_are_exploited_105441.html

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balding_n_tired
An internship should provide mutual advantage: the intern should learn skills
or a body of knowledge he/she did not have before, the employer should get
some work done, and perhaps have a chance to evaluate the intern for future
hiring. I'd say it's fine not to pay a part-time intern who is given the
chance to learn a lot.

"Please. A few years ago, my old employer, ABC, started paying our interns.
That was good for well-connected students who got internships, but bad for
those who were turned down. ABC cut the number of interns by more than half.
There's no free lunch."

"Well-connected interns", then, replaced interns who could afford to work for
no pay. Why do I doubt that the latter were less well connected.

"Minimum-wage law and union rules already killed off apprentice jobs on
construction sites. Contractors say: If I must pay high union wages, I'll hire
experienced workers. I'd lose money if I hired a kid and helped him learn on
the job."

Contractors say, why should I pay union wages when I can pick up a guy at the
Home Depot parking lot. Not quite the same thing.

