Unpaid Internships: common but illegal

marco:

(via soupsoup)

The scenario is fairly typical: a company offers an opportunity to ‘break into the business’ in exchange for the intern working for free. You see many examples of this in the entertainment industry. […]

In order to qualify as an unpaid internship, the requirement is simple: no work can be performed that is of any benefit at all to the company. That is, you can not deliver mail, sort files, file papers, organize a person’s calendar, conduct market research, write reports, watch television shows and report on them, read scripts, schedule interviews, or any other job that assists the employer in any way in running their business.

New York’s entertainment industry runs on unpaid (or severely underpaid) interns. It’s embarrassing, and it disgusts me — it effectively limits jobs in the business to people who already have enough money (or, more commonly, whose parents do) to afford to live in New York at a loss for a long time.

I’ve never seen the disconnect between starting salaries and cost of living be as grossly and unnecessarily out of proportion as the entry-level jobs in the New York entertainment industry.

Source: soupsoup

192 Notes/ Hide

  1. blueluna4jam reblogged this from poobah
  2. smoketest reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    As an engineering student I am expected to have at least two, maybe three internships under my belt before I graduate....
  3. wildoink reblogged this from poobah
  4. girlcyborg reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    full time student, part time job, two unpaid internships. i’m a busy girl. but i know that i’ve got a job in...
  5. themattsmith reblogged this from megankcollins and added:
    themattsmith:24isthenew25:themattsmith:inkyeagle:...Not a throwdown, by any means. Maybe a...
  6. iammiki reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    I agree 100% with themattsmith. I’ve had both paid internships and unpaid internships. I was lucky that my parents paid...
  7. megankcollins reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    Oh snap - my first Tumblr throwdown! Okay, better now screw this up… I originally stated my argument with themattsmith...
  8. themattsmith reblogged this from megankcollins
  9. apoplecticskeptic reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    Matt’s willingness to come in and show Burst his work ethic, attitude, problem-solving skills and and creative abilities...
  10. idontgetrunnershigh reblogged this from themattsmith and added:
    In my project management class final we “hired” interns to get around a budget problem. We said if we had slaves it...
  11. poobah reblogged this from themattsmith
  12. themattsmith reblogged this from inkyeagle and added:
    Try being the recording school graduate that says “I’m not doing any work until someone pays me for it”. I’ll see you...
  13. inkyeagle reblogged this from soupsoup
  14. parisasays reblogged this from soupsoup