As a Brown student, you may have spent a summer or two working as an unpaid or underpaid intern. Maybe you are interested in public service and staffed your local representative's office, or maybe you volunteered in a foreign country. Or perhaps you are a science concentrator and received a small stipend - less than minimum wage - for long hours spent in a laboratory. Why have these internships, paid and unpaid, become the norm instead of traditional local summer employment for college students? Today, we all feel the need to gain "experience" to fill space on a resume. And in ultra-competitive environments, like college admissions and job applications, the supply of eager, optimistic and untrained students far outpaces the demand for temporary entry-level positions. This competition has allowed every sector of the professional world to exploit students.
Though it is very appealing to work for a prestigious company, an unpaid internship often involves menial tasks, like fetching coffee, or work of the lowest importance. Sure, you get to experience daily life in your preferred field of work, but rarely are students entrusted with truly significant duties. According to a 2010 Economic Policy Institute review of internships, which outlines the major flaws of the internship labor system, the growth of unpaid internships serves to limit participation to students with the means to "forgo wages and pay their living expenses, effectively institutionalizing socioeconomic disparities." This disparity, in turn, bars tens of thousands of high-achieving students from keeping up with their peers.
You probably know lots of students who spent a summer in New York City or Washington working at a cool internship. Well, they needed a lot more than minimum wage to pay for rent and airfare. College tuition is already at record levels, and students are being compelled to remain financially dependent to pursue their dreams.
Even for students capable of pursuing unpaid positions, there is a distinct legal disadvantage to being an intern. According to the New York Times, lack of regulation regarding internships means "no benefits" and "no legal protection from harassment or discrimination." Only the businesses benefit. An employer can choose to make students spend 40 hours a week making copies or entering data. The legitimate internship can then only be phrased in terms of exploitation. Students pay to learn skills at university like editing a campus publication or mastering a programming language. An employer should not receive free labor and benefit from this skill without due compensation. This is definitely not the right way to introduce students to the job market.
The CareerLAB does its best to allow students to remain competitive and involved in their fields. According to its website, "Brown has a number of competitive programs that offer full or partial funding for unpaid or low-paying internships." The most prominent example of this is LINK, which provides funding for internships for rising juniors and seniors with certain qualifications. Brown cannot possibly fund internships for all applicants, let alone all undergraduates in the student body. Fixing the problem requires a national labor response. The same Times article stated that the current policy is for interns to check if their employer abides to the Labor Department's six-point test for legitimate unpaid positions. Interns cannot be expected to regulate business practices. It is the duty of the Labor Department to enforce regulations and make sure there is adequate compensation. Moreover, legislation should distinguish between internships that are paid positions and those that are volunteer opportunities, which only serve a public good.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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