Are Unpaid Internships Bad?

[rdubwiley]

[NYC_SKP]

1. While it's true that poor people can't afford to an unpaid internship....

....I'm not sure I would outlaw them for everyone on that point alone.

Maybe all internships should be paid, or provide college credits, or some combination thereof.

What I do know is that fewer and fewer businesses are willing to risk providing these opportunities.

[JoeyT]

2. Yes.

Make 'em pay the minimum wage. (Which isn't high enough, but that's for another thread) If it works like a job, make it pay like a job.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

3. My final college credit was an internship...

It was unpaid. The day I completed my internship, I was hired on with the company I interred with. And I made good bank at the time (it was an ad agency, I majored in film/video). If your degree requires an internship, there really isn't a reason you should be paid for it... You don't get paid to take your classes, and your internship should be considered just another class.

Now, if you were interning to be say, a blacksmith... Or an electrician (I did this once before I decided to go to college), you should be paid (and I was). That is, a non-degree related internship.

So, the answer is yes and no. It's not a simple issue, IMHO.

[GreenStormCloud]

5. Unpaid internships are a way for the 1% to keep the 99% out of some professions. N/T

[pam4water]

6. That is some tortured circular logic. You should do an unpaid intership with a psychiatrist to get

treatment for you Stockholm syndrome. Oh what if he treated you that would be pay meant and we can't have that.