{"id":14529,"date":"2013-06-18T15:01:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T19:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=14529"},"modified":"2013-06-18T15:01:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T19:01:23","slug":"interns-sue-conde-nast-over-really-low-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=14529","title":{"rendered":"Interns sue Conde Nast over (really low) wages"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s this little legal item, signed into law in 1938 by FDR, called the Fair Labor Standards Act<\/a>. It’s sort of an anti-semi-slavery law which should protect workers from being unfairly underpaid. Or not paid at all.<\/p>\n

I mentioned this previously<\/a> when news came of a lawsuit against the producers of “Black Swan” (the movie) by a production intern<\/a>, a\/k\/a gofer. Who was radically underpaid.<\/p>\n

Now interns at Cond\u00e9 Nast, the big publisher of really classy magazines (The New Yorker, Vogue, etc), have sued for a similar reason: they just haven’t been paid much.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Revolt of the Interns!<\/p>\n

It’s pretty obvious that substantial, if not utterly unspeakably wealthy, companies have been taking unfair advantage of the desperate employment difficulties after the Great Recession. Young people are having a bitch of a time finding anything like the quality work their schooling and lives promised them. So they are poignantly willing to take on glamorous slave labor, if the labor is for a big-time publisher who might, just might have a real (low-paying) job for them in the near future.<\/p>\n

It isn’t nice. And I guess the downside for companies hiring interns \u2014 interns that must be intelligent and self-confident, given the requirements of the companies they’re working for \u2014 is that intelligent, self-confident young people are smart enough to know about the Fair Labor Standards Act. And smart enough to sue, although it’s a big risk for them since these desirable companies could establish a secret blackball list for future hiring.<\/p>\n

We’ll have to wait and see whether this happens … and if a class action lawsuit by ex-interns springs up over being blackballed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s this little legal item, signed into law in 1938 by FDR, called the Fair Labor Standards Act. It’s sort of an anti-semi-slavery law which should protect workers from being unfairly underpaid. Or not paid at all. I mentioned this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-14529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-employment-lawsuits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t