The economical times always make people do crazy things. Businesses are no different. Some people might feel like things are getting a whole lot better, but it is obvious by the mushrooming of unpaid internships that the business world is absolutely still going crazy. It turns out that there are a number of criteria that have to be met in order for something like this to be unpaid. Many of these internships do not fit any of the criteria, but they are still getting filled because students need the experience on their resumes . What many students forget is that there are a number or great internships during the summer like the Southwestern Company which will pay you for all your hard work.
Here are the criteria so that you can determine if you have been cheated out of money at an internship.
1. The internship gives training that would be equivalent to that done at a vocational school.
2. The internship must benefit the intern.
3. The intern does not replace regular employees and works under close observation.
4. There is no immediate advantage to having the intern and there may even be some inconvenience on the part of the employer due to having the intern.
5. There is an understanding that the intern might not be hired at the end of the interning period. (Although there are a number of paid and unpaid interns who will get hired at the end of their internship. Southwestern Company does it all the time.)
6. There is an understanding that there will be no compensation for the training period.
If even one of these is not true the intern is required to be paid if they are working for a for-profit company. When interning at a not for profit company it is a little harder to ask for money because it can go from claiming that you were an intern to claiming that you were a volunteer.
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