Keri Hudson has recently made the news as the intern who took her employer to court and won the right to be recognised as a paid worker. This will doubtless have caused concern in companies throughout the land who currently give places to unpaid interns. There is a long history of unpaid internships in this country, and those in favour of it argue that it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. I can understand the argument; after all, most job adverts list a requirement for relevant experience. But questions of ethics come up when an intern is asked to manage a team of other unpaid staff as the Guardian reported in this case.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development provides guidelines to UK businesses who are considering whether to take on an intern. The Internship Charter states that:
“Ideally an intern should be paid a salary reflecting the contribution they make to the organisation, and at least receive the minimum wage (or London living wage where applicable). However, we feel that the quality of the experience for the intern is the most important factor, as the short-term economic costs of an internship can be off-set by the long-term advantages to the intern’s career, but this is only true if the internship is of sufficient quality.”
Obviously common sense needs to come into play here. There are businesses who simply can’t afford to take on a permanent member of staff for whom the only option is an intern; it would be crazy to effectively outlaw valuable learning opportunities in such companies by enforcing unrealistic rules regarding payment. It’s also worth considering that if an intern requires constant supervision and hand-holding, they are effectively being paid with an education. But when an intern directly generates value for a business they should be paid. Yes, they might well be gaining experience – but you could also argue that keeping a slave to cook your meals would give them valuable culinary experience. If you were evil. I’m not saying that all businesses who take on unpaid interns are in the wrong, but we have a moral obligation to treat people with fairness.
We have been talking about taking on an intern in our business recently. We are a small company, but we wouldn’t dream of asking someone to give up their time for free; that would make us no better than those who expect us to work up free design ideas to pitch for work. I believe I’ve mentioned before how I feel about that on my blog . An good intern will allow a small business owner to hand over some day-to-day tasks and concentrate on growing their business. Surely that’s worth a few quid of anyone’s money?
Pete Clark is a web strategist.
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All views are Pete’s and quite possible nobody else’s.
Tags: business, internships
I have previously experienced first hand the benefits of an unpaid internship and, in my opinion, it proved to be the spark that ignited by interest in the marketing sector. Without that I may have been lost in the ether, desperately searching for a light to show my career path, rather than being proactive and seeking it myself.
Arguably the main atrraction of an internship is the opportunity for a young and/or inexperienced individual to work at a company they would not necessarily be able to through normal employment. This occurs through a variety of reasons – logistics, limited time during university holidays, the lack of experience at that particular time, or simply the desire to prove themselves to an organisation.
A successful intern is likely to be rewarded with a monetary bonus following completion of their placement. However the incentive shouldn’t be they will be paid regardless, rather the knowledge that they have gained vastly relevant experience and, hopefully, impressed the company with the reward of glowing reference or even an offer of employment.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that there can be some very real benefits to those who take unpaid internships, as you point out. The issues I take with it are 1) Companies using interns to make profit and not rewarding them for it; and 2) The fact that unpaid internships may simply not be financially viable for some. Why should a talented hard working individual be denied the experience that others get simply because they have bills to pay?
If a company genuinely can’t afford to pay an intern anything they probably don’t have enough work for the intern to do. I wonder how valuable the experience would be in this case.
I recently completed a relatively paied internship. If I wasnt paied that small amount of money and offered accommodation then I wouldn’t have been able to take part in any such programme. I no longer live with my parents, hence all the bills I pay mysled. I havent had previusely work experience , hence payign bills with an unpaid intrenship is impossible, unless I want to end up on the street. The who would hire a homeless?
Please who ever consideres taking interns for unpaied work think about this before you do so, not only your benefits be in your minds.
I am a student who has recently complete my sandwitch year as an intern and am currently completing my final year,
As a paid intern (at minimum wage) i was able to gain fantastic experience and develope many of my skills through out my internship which i would not have been able to afford to do if i was unpaid…businesses cannot expect interns to work 40+ hours unpaid and still manage to pay their rent, bills, food and travel no matter how valuable the experince is.
Also alot of my friends were on placement last year too some of which were unpaid and some of them gained very little valuable experiend other than how to file papers and make coffee….
Small buisnesses wishing to take on an intern should have the means and work to do so. Interns are not free labour it is a mutual experience of professionals aiding in the education of up and coming prespective employees in their sector and students or graduates gaining the experince required to gain a job at the end of their studies or internship many of which require experience that cannot be gained any other way.
My internship was an extreemly positive experiencr for me and my employer. Through out the internship i contributed to the team as much as any other paid member of staff and by the end held similare responsibilites too so why should we not be paid?