Most young people going to college believe that their education
will better equip them to be able to find a decent job. However, as
students attend college, many are encouraged or even required to take
on unpaid “internship” positions in which they work for
businesses without being paid. Internship positions have been on the
rise, supposedly providing training to future employees. But as
hundreds of thousands of workers are being laid off or forced to
receive pay cuts, companies are using unpaid interns as a way to
increase profits.
Unpaid interns receive neither compensation nor health benefits.
“People who work for free are far hungrier than anybody who has
a salary, so they’re going to outperform, they’re going to try to
please, they’re going to be creative,” says Kelly Fallis, chief
executive of Remote Stylist, to CNN Fortune. “From a cost savings
perspective, to get something off the ground, it’s huge. Especially
if you’re a small business. … Ten years from now, this is going to be the norm.” (March 25)
This is huge for the capitalists who look for any means to cut
labor costs and increase their profitability. Many who seek unpaid
internships have just graduated from college and enter the job market
at a time when unemployment is at a high level.
Throughout the United States, colleges and universities are
requiring students to accept unpaid internships. According to The New
York Times, “In 2007, for instance, Will Banston, a Colgate
University student from Augusta, Ga., and a son of two
public-interest lawyers, worked as an unpaid, full-time summer intern
for WNBC and had to scramble for shelter in New York City.” (New
York Times, April 2)
In an article discussing the “challenges of hiring and managing modern day serfs,” CNN Fortune outlines the benefits of working for free in the most outrageous terms: “The
benefit unpaid labor offers to a business is pretty clear, but it can
also give employees needed experience, a reference letter or even a
self-esteem boost in a depressing economy.” (March 25)
An increasing number of interns are actually paying
for the right to work for companies under the guise of receiving
academic credit. Colleges and universities are charging tuition to
interns so that students can meet internship requirements to
graduate. Menlo College, located in northern California,
sold credits to businesses and grossed $50,000 from the agreement.
Schools like the University of Pennsylvania charged $2,700 to an
intern at NBC Universal.
CNN Fortune is not far off the mark: capitalism may mean freedom for the bosses, but it is little more than modern-day serfdom for workers. It is time for this rotten system to go.
