Free Is Better, But Is It Right?

College internships are a good thing. Students learn what the real world of business is all about.

In most cases the interns aren’t paid. In fact, in most cases they’re working for free and paying their college/university for the credits they’ll receive. It’s a bit of a scam in that regard.

College internships are a good thing. Students learn what the real world of business is all about.

In most cases the interns aren’t paid. In fact, in most cases they’re working for free and paying their college/university for the credits they’ll receive. It’s a bit of a scam in that regard.

Some businesses use free interns instead of paid employees. That’s wrong.

Here’s a typical intern tale of woe from John Stossel as reported by Mediaite.

“The Labor Department says if you don’t pay an intern – if you get a college student and you don’t pay them – that’s exploitation,” said Stossel. “And that’s how I’ve gotten half of the research done in my career because we couldn’t afford to pay researchers.”

What Stossel is saying is ABC and now Fox News “couldn’t afford to pay researchers.” May I call BS on this?

For employers free is better than paid, but is it right?

8 thoughts on “Free Is Better, But Is It Right?”

  1. Good points, Geoff! Isn’t it amazing how college students are treated as free labor. In 1972, when I was doing student teaching as a college junior, we were only supposed to teach under the direct supervision of the teacher who was to remain in the classroom. After a few weeks, I was given the class and the teacher went off to the teacher’s lounge to work on making Christmas gifts for her family! And I got zero monetary compensation while she received an extra $65 per week for the “trouble” of having to “supervise” a student teacher. We were also told that we shouldn’t be working any other jobs at the time. The next year, I kept my part-time job while doing my senior student teaching. I wasn’t going to quit it for the 8 weeks of student teaching. In contrast, my daughter went to Northeastern where they have co-ops. She was paid $20/hour while doing engineering work. I wish more schools/employers would go that route.

  2. The words “Morally Bankrupt” come to mind when someone benefits from someone else’s labor (intellectual or physical) without compensating them in some fair manner.

  3. The company is providing real-world education to the student in exchange for their labor.
    The student is paying the school for an education.
    The school is happily collecting the students’ full tuition cost while graciously allowing the company to provide part of said students’ education.

    Why not question the motives of the colleges, instead of the companies?

    1. Tony – you are quite right. I said it’s a bit of a scam.

      On the other hand Stossel said, “we couldn’t afford to pay researchers.” That’s what sent me to the keyboard.

  4. We use externs where I work and while they aren’t monetarily compensated they are given a wealth of knowledge. Most interns don’t go into their position full steam ahead. There is a lot of training involved which is costly to the employer. The work that the intern/extern does needs to supervised, checked and then “graded” in lengthy reports to the school from which the student came. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye.

    1. You very well may be right. That hasn’t been my experience in seeing interns. Usually they’re free menial labor and whatever they pick up from watching is their education.

  5. I wrote on this issue a while back. I think the current system is broken and the interns are exploited, regardless of any benefit they may receive. As the cost of college education continues to rise unpaid internships should be subjected to greater scrutiny.

  6. When I was in college I interned at a cable TV company. I was their receptionist. And I wasn’t really taught anything either. I learned more about how TV works from volunteering with the local access channel (who worked out of the same studio).
    Big Business (indeed any business) will take free labor (or anything else it can get free). Anything keep an extra buck in their own pockets.

Leave a Reply to Geoff Fox Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *