Unpaid Internships Harm Students
NEW Job offer:
Looking for a recent graduate: at least 4 years of experience in the field
hardworking, often overtime and on weekends, no pay
We repeat, this is an unpaid internship. The candidate is responsible for commuting to the office and living in a big expensive city. Inflation guaranteed.
Due to a lot of applications, we won’t notify you when we reject you.
We just don’t care. And we don’t read them anyway.
Unpaid internships are everywhere. No matter how you filter your search on LinkedIn they keep popping up. I have read so many of the same descriptions already and they look oddly similar to the sample above.
Internships prepare students for the real-life environment and create a professional network, as Forbes’ Human Resources Council states in an August 2022 article. Big corporations offer paid work and trainings on a regular basis but smaller firms or not-for-profit organizations usually cannot afford it. They may want, however, to teach the interns key skills. And perhaps some students can afford to work without the need for payment.
Therefore, a firm offering an unpaid internship creates more opportunities and taking it is a choice of the students.
In that case they should be able to do it, right?
Wrong. Unpaid internships are harmful in more ways than one.
Employers don’t take students as seriously when they don’t pay them.
Economy is built on the exchange of goods and services, in other words, of value. One gives money to receive work. Work is a combination of time, skill and effort. In the way that our economic processes are structured, generally, the better value you are perceived to provide, the more you get paid.
When you don’t pay someone, you receive work without giving in return. Instead of fairly compensating the person, you take away the value of their work. Deciding not to pay them may be because you don’t believe they would do any useful work. Even if they are young and lack the skill set, they invest their time and efforts, which you deem as worthless. As Dorie Clark explains in a February 2018 article by Utpal Dholakia for Psychology Today, price is closely tied to quality and if it is lower it signals less value. So, if an intern is not being paid for doing the exact same job as a paid one, employers are more likely to pay less attention to the unpaid one and put less effort into training them. This could result in dissatisfaction for both sides.
Free work is essentially exploitation.
Employers may think that they are providing a great opportunity to young people to get industry experience. It could be very fulfilling. Yet, if the conditions fail to complete the basic level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — having a place to stay and access to normal food, then any job fulfillment would prove to be of little value.
Back in October 2020, the European Parliament concluded that unpaid internships “exploit young people’s work and violate their rights.” Parliament condemned the lack of remuneration and urged these internships to be banned. Three years later, the issue continues as prices for everything rise and no international ban in the European Union is in effect.
Employers miss on quality students who cannot afford the living expenses of working without payment.
In a January 2023 study by the European Youth Forum, 53% of students say they have completed at least two unpaid internships. The data reveals that “an unpaid internship costs the average young person in Europe over €1000 a month.” Even more, if inflation persists in 2023. Most placements are six months, which totals €6000 for one and €12000 for two unpaid ones. This equals roughly 33 semesters worth of an average public bachelor in Austria (fees for Applied sciences being €363/semester.) It deepens inequality among students and excludes candidates who would be a good part of the team if they were supported financially.
Employers don’t have to pay full salaries if they cannot afford to. Yet, they can offer benefits — food vouchers, public transport cards, free lunches in the office, gym memberships, help finding affordable accommodation. This would incentivize the students and alleviate part of the financial burden of living expenses. Often such benefits are given to full-time employees either way.
Salary is beyond the point. It is about respect. If somebody works for you, pay them — in benefits, in dignity, in humane conditions. It’s that simple.
This is an opinion piece.
Nikoleta Stefanova wasted one summer at an unpaid internship — didn’t learn anything. The next year she upgraded and flew to Barcelona to do another unpaid one — left after two weeks disappointed and overheated. Now, she wants to be paid for her work as every other decent human being. She believes you should be paid too.
