Are Internships Educational or a Ruse for Free Labor Practice?
As coordinator of the music technology program, I often get invitations from employers for students to apply for internships. As much as I try to accommodate these requests, usually, I find that these "employers" are frequently just looking for free labor. While I appreciate how an internship has helped me in the past, I think there are very important delineations in 2022 between internships, economics, and unfair labor practices.
It is important to acknowledge my position; internships are not free labor. Internships are supposed to be for educational purposes and extension of the classroom. An intern should be at a facility to experience the day-to-day operations of how to do a job. Interns should not be roadies, coffee baristas, servers, and janitors. The state of Massachusetts has outlined very specifically what an intern responsibility should be. An internship is for college credit, with the sole purpose of learning.
"Workers who are not getting school or academic credit
If an intern is not receiving school credits, then the intern must be paid at least minimum wage unless the intern is a "trainee" under state law. This is a narrow exemption. DLS may determine that someone is a "trainee" excluded from the minimum wage laws if the training:
It is similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, even though it includes the actual operation of the employer's facilities.
It is for the benefit of the intern.
It does not displace regular employees, but the intern works under close supervision of existing staff.
It provides the employer with no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern, and on occasion, its operations may actually be impeded.
It does not entitle the intern to a job at the conclusion of the training period, and
It is based on a mutual understanding between the employer and the intern that the trainee is not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
"
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/volunteers-and-interns
But, internships are not equitable. The fact is an internship is the student paying money to a college for college credits, but the facility hosting the intern is getting free labor. Labor should be an exchange between a worker and an employer. In an internship, the worker pays a third party, the college. The monetary benefits go to the college specifically, and the employer is a second beneficiary. The loser in this entire transaction is the student. Not only does the student have to take time out of their work schedule, which provides them a higher monetary benefit, but they also have to pay the tuition credits. That is a double negative in terms of fiscal responsibility to the student. We can say that the student gains valuable experience from an internship opportunity, but that's only if the student can't afford the opportunity. If the student has the means to afford to pay for college credit and gives up the part-time income for the experience of an internship, then depending on where the internship takes place, it could be a valuable resume builder. However, in my experience with lower socioeconomic status (SES) students, an internship is a luxury they cannot afford, which brings us to the point of equity. If an internship is required to get into a business sector, then we need to evaluate the business sector. Where are the inequity and injustice? As Pierre Schaeffer might say, there's some reciprocal inherited violence within the system to which there's a reproduction of inequity.
We have to do better period as educators; we have to protect our student's time and educational investment. We have to be the representatives of our students, not perpetuate the cycle. Just because we as educators had to do internships doesn't mean that our students have to. If an internship is the only way a student can gain experience to get into an industry, we have to reevaluate the industry. That's why organizations such as Women's Audio Mission exist. Organizations like these put checks and balances into the system to try to break the cycle. That's why it's up to us as educators to recognize a cycle's potential to perpetuate itself, and we must break it.
Dr. Mike Testa
