I wrote previously about how certain types of unpaid internships violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Today’s New York Times has a piece by Stephen Greenhouse elaborating upon the problem — especially how interns, even those aware that the legal standards are being violated, are loathe to file lawsuits against their employers because they fear being labeled as troublemakers, and will have problems getting a real job.
Several of the people Greenhouse interviewed for his article have sued. All the stories are interesting in an irritating kind of way: when most of us starting working, we got paid (if only minimally) for the same sort of work these young people are doing, for free.
Greenhouse quotes employment experts who estimate that …(“undergraduates work in more than one million internships a year, with Intern Bridge, a research firm, finding almost half unpaid.)”
With these numbers, interns should form a union and gain all the advantages unions provide, including bargaining power. I see righteous lawsuits in their future.