Germany to require interns be paid: Should paying interns be required in USA?

[MikeL]

Just FYI - in the US it is law to pay interns. You can just pay them in college credit.

Pay them minimum wage an college units I think. That should be mandatory. Really, minimum wage for any company is a drop in the bucket for 3-6-9months of work. Plus every student can use the cash. Why is this such a big deal?

 

[fawndog]

I've apprenticed both ways, and what sticks with me is how much of a douche the "non-paid" employer was.

 

[Marcoose]

TPTB in two previous companies intentionally recruited interns because it was free labour. No altruism whatsoever like teaching an unskilled person the tricks of a trade in exchange of no pay. None. It was 100% to get work done without having to pay for it. Utterly shitty.

Internship is different than volunteering. Volunteering is folding linen at the shelter, building homes for the poor, doing triage at the free clinics, helping kids cross streets. Internship is coding a for-profit app, editing a for-profit proposal, building a for-profit home. Internship requires some level of education, smarts, acumen, etc. It's professional work, albeit very junior. Which is even different than apprenticeship.

So, yes, if you're working on a for-profit thing, you ought to get paid, even if lousy minimum wage.

 

[SFSV650]

Internship requires some level of education, smarts, acumen, etc. It's professional work, albeit very junior. Which is even different than apprenticeship.

This is the key point, and harkens back to the 'how much of your job could a random bozo do with a weeks training!' thread.

You may think intern work (drafting, editing, research, model making) is trivially simple compared to the work of a 10yr+ attorney, engineer, architect, CPA, etc, but you're delusional if you think a high schooler could come in to the office and do any of this.

 

[msethhunter]

Another stupid law...probably get a lot of internships canceled if they tried that here...

Then so be it. It's free work for companies, and artificially lowers the rest of the wages.

 

[aminalmutha]

I was paid for the 3 internships I had in college. I wouldn't have done them if I was working for free.

Same. I couldn't have done a free internship, I couldn't afford to not get paid.

 

[Reli]

In most cases, the intern is getting more value than they are giving to the employer. They're acquiring knowledge, they're being mentored, AND they get to put another line on their resume (this is critical).

The only reason most Fortune 500 companies pay their interns pretty well is because they're competing with other companies for top students.

But I'm speaking from a business school perspective --- I don't know how it is for other fields.

 

[Archimedes]

In most cases, the intern is getting more value than they are giving to the employer. They're acquiring knowledge, they're being mentored, AND they get to put another line on their resume (this is critical).

The only reason most Fortune 500 companies pay their interns pretty well is because they're competing with other companies for top students.

But I'm speaking from a business school perspective --- I don't know how it is for other fields.

This. The only reason we pay for internships is because we're trying to recruit that person to come work for us when they graduate. We would never pay what we do to someone with their lack of experience, but we consider the money a recruiting cost.