Should unpaid internships be allowed?
A backlash is brewing against the unpaid internship with many issues against this type of employment coming to light.
It's been recently discovered that if you're an unpaid intern in Ontario, you aren't protected by health and safety laws, according to the Toronto Star. While the provincial government is currently reviewing and reconsidering the law, there's no timeline on when any changes could be made.
This adds to a growing discontent expressed about unpaid internships. In Vancouver, there was a backlash against the Fairmont Waterfront hotel for offering an unpaid internship to bus tables. Another recent Toronto Star story showed that hospitality interns did the job of a cleaning lady during their internship. While two former Bell interns filed a complaint with allegations that the company broke labour laws when they weren't paid for the work they did.
Many young workers taken on unpaid internships with the number of them in Canada ranging from 100,000 to 300,000, according to the CBC. Young people have a tougher time landing a job, especially after the recession, and it's no wonder that they're trying any possible way to gain experience to jumpstart their careers.
With some older workers forced to delay retirement since their savings took a hit during the recession, they've filled entry-level jobs that were typically filled by youth. The Canadian average of unemployed youth was 13.5 to 14.5 per cent, according to report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, with joblessness more common in Ontario.
"There is only one in two Ontarians between the ages 15 and 24 who have paid employment. What that is, is the worst numbers we've seen since Statscan has kept these numbers since 1976," the author of the report told the CBC.
Some argue that unpaid internships offer valuable experience that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten and the work sometimes leads to a paid position, which can be disputed, according to an article by Atlantic magazine. Others argue that the experience is exploitive when unpaid interns are doing the work of paid workers and when they're also putting in long hours that can be expected even after they land a paid position.
In 2011, a 22-year-old Albertan student crashed and died while driving home after his internship. His family is convinced the accident happened because he fell asleep at the wheel after working long hours. They've recently started fighting for more regulation for unpaid internships.
It turns out that the growing negative sentiment towards an unpaid internship is happening worldwide, especially after a German intern for the American bank Merrill Lynch in the U.K. died after pulling three subsequent all nighters. With Europe's youth unemployment hitting staggering heights, it's no wonder that they're fed up with working for free.
This summer, a New York federal judge ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage and overtime laws when it used unpaid interns on the movie production of Black Swan. This ruling could spell the death of the unpaid internship since companies might not want to risk hiring an unpaid internship.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether that ruling triggers change in Canada and whether that's decided to be good or bad.
Do you think unpaid internships should be allowed?
Josephine Lim, MSN Money
Posted by: Frances K | Oct 19, 2021 7:46:08 PM
I think unpaid internships should be made illegal. Not only are many of them not covered by the laws that protect other workers, but the internships themselves often amount to slave labour. Many times interns are only used to perform tasks (like making coffee) that have nothing to do with their background, and so are useless to the intern. On top of all that, many students today are graduating with tens of thousands of dollars worth of student debt and cannot afford to take on unpaid work. The hidden truth here is that young people who are poor cannot afford to apply for an internship and so once again the odds are stacked against them.
Posted by: SP | Oct 20, 2021 2:55:34 AM
Nothing wrong with unpaid internships if they are limited to a 3 week duration.
Problems arise when 'employers' are allowed to use them to fill places (modern slavery as it were).
But in the grand scheme of things that's they way society is going.
Force the youth to pay extortionate prices to get an education (which used to be free) so that they can get jobs which previously didn't require any higher education at all.
Then... the elderly can feed off the slave wages of the young.
Win... Win... (unless you're young and trying to raise a family that is...).
Posted by: Rick Townson | Oct 20, 2021 7:56:16 AM
It's shocking that we have even allowed all the things to happen that have caused all the shifts in employment and salary in this country. The signs this was coming have been blatantly ignored by our gov't and to the benefit of all business and corporations to continue to get richer of the backs of the working people...with temporary foreign workers and immigration being at its highest, together with an aging population that can't afford to retire, we have put our youth's progress in huge jeopardy as well as us 30 & 40 somethings who have all the education and credentials working against us...this is a much bigger issue and unpaid internships is just another way of ruining society.
Posted by: JS | Oct 20, 2021 8:39:22 AM
I also agree unpaid internships should be made illegal. As a parent who's daughter has had 2 different unpaid internships in the publishing industry, did the work of a full time employee, asked to extend at both places with no pay, these places are using these internships for free labour! Government intervention is definitely needed when greedy companies are using these internships year after year as a money saving tactic instead of hiring full time employees!
Posted by: Bob | Oct 20, 2021 9:09:20 AM
This unpaid work, which is what it is under the guise of helping students/youth to get work experience, has been going on for many years. It wont stop. The government helps corporations before they look out for citizens. This is shameful and I don't have much faith that it will change. Neither corporations or governments have any integrity anymore it seems and as long as the citizens of this country remain apathetic, nothing will change.
Posted by: Derek | Oct 20, 2021 9:42:28 AM
$30 000.00 in student loans to get the education, internships usually run for 3-6 months.Not one of these companies offer a way to pay interest collecting student loans while taking these "Internships" Add 6 months of living expenses, and a $30 000.00 education, and companies are getting a$40 0000 00 dollar investments into THEIR business, with a promise of a piece of paper in return. Well, I think it's time that these companies doing this, are legally required to give a return on these "Inestments" I didn't spend that kind of money to benefit someone else, it's an investment into my future, not any particular companies. Don't expect Government intervention, as almost all MPP in this Country exploit youth themselves. MPP rely on interns to run the country, while they scam living expenses.
Posted by: Kevin | Oct 20, 2021 10:47:32 AM
What part of "If you do work for me then I owe you compensation." is hard to understand? It doesn't matter which end of the scale you choose - high skill work or low skill work - employers have an ethical obligation to provide compensation to individuals who are providing their services in any formalized arrangement.
If a person is doing low skill work, the experience they gain is just that - low skill. Low investment to train, low value to the person doing it, and low wages if they get a paid job performing that skill.
If a person is doing high skill work, the skill they bring to the job - whether or not the company needs to improve that skill - has to be sufficient to add value to the company, or they would not have been hired.
Making money should be one of the core values behind any commercial enterprise - but it should not be accomplished by exploiting those who are looking for gainful employment.
Posted by: Mishimagi | Oct 20, 2021 10:53:21 AM
Internships are a good thing if it provides training in the area it is meant to however that is most often not the case. From my experience, it is as others pointed out an abuse of the worker. For example the Fashion Communication Program at Ryerson university requires students to complete 400 hours of internship but they obviously DO NOT monitor these internships. Because I know someone who was hired by a modeling agency to answer phones & make coffee. And in another case to put up posters for a new business. I think anyone who has made it to university already knows how to make coffee, answer a phone & put up a poster. And if they don't they are in trouble. As I pointed out before there is nothing wrong with interships as long as they are monitored. Have the intern write a report at the end of the internship as to it's benefits/validity. There has to be accountability and monitoring if not it will be abused that is just human nature.
Posted by: Peter Bagnall | Oct 20, 2021 11:03:24 AM
Unpaid internships are just a modern term for slave labour and in most cases have no educational value what so ever. When I learned of the Fairmont affair in Canada where I live. From that day forward I have refused to give them my business and I will refuse to do business with any company I learn that uses these means for their own profit without compensating their staff. It is ridiculous they charge their customers premium prices, refuse to pay their staff and pocket the profits for themselves. To the best of my knowledge slavery is exactly that slavery and as far as I am concerned slavery is against the law, it is immoral and unethical and I will NOT support it in any way no matter what they choose to call it.
Posted by: realworld | Oct 20, 2021 7:02:05 PM
if someone will make coffee, put up posters, etc. for 6 months for free thinking they are going to get a job then they arent worth a dollar of the education that was squandered on them. its simple...dont work for free. if you think you have something that a company wants than they should pay for it...and you should be compensated for it.