Number Crunch

A Lot of Companies Don’t Pay Interns — and That’s a Problem

Some of these interns sure look a lot like employees

43%: That’s the share of internships offered by for-profit companies in the United States that are unpaid, according data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, per the Washington Post.

While unpaid internships have long been a subject of contention, Jane Slater, a reporter at the NFL Network, kicked off a furious online debate last week when she bemoaned the negative comments she’d received for posting an unpaid internship opportunity. Supportive replies were largely in the vein of how much unpaid intern work someone did “back in my day” or that old chestnut about “paying your dues” to get ahead in a profession.

The folks complaining about entitled youths failed to recognize, despite several commenters pointing it out, how the practice of hiring unpaid interns perpetuates a system in which only those with the means to work for nothing gain the experience and connections required…