Gareth sent me a link to an article called “This 75-year-old Law Should Protect Americans from Unpaid Internships.” I laughed a little, thinking, “Right, we need to be protected against an offer someone might make to us!” But the author really is serious. We really are too stupid, in his view, to weigh the costs and benefits of an internship.
He writes: “If the employer paid the student’s tuition bills, that would be one thing. But an intern who works without pay and also pays a tuition bill is even worse off financially than an intern who is merely unpaid. What’s more, there is evidence that unpaid interns hurt themselves in the labor market, perhaps by signaling that their work can be gotten cheaply.”
If they’re so stupid why do people accept them? Blank-out.