The High Cost of the Unpaid Internship

by Gary Seward
0 comment
The High Cost of the Unpaid Internship - Fresh Print Magazine

Image:www-tc.pbs.org

It’s no secret that youth unemployment (15-30) is still extremely high, around 15%. Many youth are left competing for just minimum wage jobs in areas that don’t interest them, serving at bars and restaurants, applying for social assistance, living with their parents longer, taking out massive amounts of loans. This is to contrast the fact that Canada has some of the highest numbers of College and University graduates in the world. What about that promise of the job of our dreams we received during middle and high school? Was it all smoke and mirrors?

In 2013 something more insidious has taken over the lives of many youth, the unpaid internship, and it seems to align itself with a vicious Catch 22 out in the workforce, which is, employers want you to have experience. But how can you get that experience unless someone employs you? Unfortunately companies have now taken to the unpaid internship to fill that gap. While many would argue that in certain fields, like journalism, fashion, film and TV, unpaid internships have been a major way to support industries, get young people in the door, and move them up the ladder to secure permanent work that is paid. This trend has now moved into almost every labour sector in Canada and it may be coming at a great cost. One may even argue that this is a way of assimilating entry-level jobs into a wage free zone. What is the high price on the unpaid internship?

I’ve talked to many youth in the past few days and for some unpaid internships are a necessary way to forge ahead in a field they dream of. For others it’s an experience of enduring exploitation. I decided to make a pros and cons list out of some of the comments I received:

Pros

  • Valuable hands-on experience
  • A link to possible full-time or part-time work (always ask for a timeline)
  • Could be done while in school, like co-op or an apprenticeship
  • Networking opportunities
  • Mentorship with industry leaders

Cons

  • No timeline to permanent work
  • No money (duh)
  • No Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, Federal/Provincial Tax contributions
  • Standard workplace employee protections don’t apply
  • Menial tasks not at all related to field (coffee fetching, photocopying, answering phones, sending/receiving mail, data entry, typing memos)
  • Juggling with a job that you need to pay rent, bills and buy food

I’d rather put things in perspective a little with a little story of a young lad who dreams of being a journalist. He’s got the education required to get his feet wet, but can’t afford to work without pay at an internship, which is required. In order to make ends meet he takes a minimum wage position in retail. This, of course, is after he takes out student loans that will plague him for years. In order for him to make the appropriate amount of money required to pay all his bills, which include student loans, he has to work the maximum 40 hours a week. Now he needs to decide if he can afford the time and effort to take on an unpaid internship, which could actually further advance his chances of one day doing exactly what he knows he’d be good at. He’s left with a major life dilemma. Does he toil away at a dead end job to make money or does he give up security for a chance to advance his career?

Once again, I ask what the cost is of the unpaid internship? Sean Geobey, a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of a recent report called The Young and the Jobless, states “The big challenge with unpaid internships is that you have to somehow also put a roof over your head and food in your belly while you’re doing it.”

Internships have gotten quite a bit of attention lately in the media as more and more people are standing up against alleged exploitation they faced while working for free. People are now suing companies they worked for. With all this attention now on this issue we can ask each other “are unpaid internships the only way to forge a path to opportunity?” Many experts would disagree with that notion and claim the cost is too high.

“There seems to be an explosion in internships in Canada, which is why they certainly merit more scrutiny than they have in the past,” said Sean Geobey. He cites data by Andrew Langille, a labour lawyer and founder of www.youthandwork.ca, which estimates there are between 100,000 and 300,000 unpaid internships in Canada each year.

His argument is not just that it has a negative impact on the young worker but also has negative consequences for companies and industries as well. “This isn’t necessarily about greed – though for some employers that plays a role. It is more that once an organization has access to free labour, it can outcompete other organizations in its field, forcing them to use free labour as well. Eventually, it hollows out an entire industry. To make matters worse, it burns people out, makes it hard for them to acquire skills and really can destroy the productivity of a work force,” he warned.

Not all internships are unpaid, but a majority of them are. And I am not saying that internships are inherently evil and need  not to be considered. What I am saying is that stricter guidelines need to be set in place, ones that protect the young worker. Stipends and honorariums may work for some, but not all. And placing everyone, coming into a particular field, into the same category is a dangerous practice.

Going back to the story about the young journalist, you can contrast that with a story of a young lady (in the same field and with the same education) who lives with her parents and can afford to work for free. So, which is more deserving of the opportunity to advance their careers? Is the one with the least struggles and more open availability more deserving of an opportunity? What if entry-level positions were still the norm going into this field and they both had to work their way up the hierarchy ladder? These aren’t simple questions but ones businesses and the government need to take much more seriously than in the past.

You may also like