Last month’s CBC article, as well as this Globe and Mail article both touch on the topic of internships. More specifically, the articles question the status quo of unpaid internships through analysing the nature of jobs, employer and employee benefits, as well as the economy as a whole. Holistically, there are many players and actors involved in the ordeal and arguments on both sides of the debate should be addressed before conclusively stating that unpaid internships are unethical and uneconomical.
Why Unpaid Interships Should be Banned
1. The Vicious Cycle
There is a major problem with the status quo. First, let’s start with high tuition costs (think about our $163 Sauder credits). Now think of poor students who are finding ways to try and fund for their education. They need a job. Most relevant and well-paying jobs require previous work experience, so the student decides to undergo an unpaid internship at a company in order to gain that experience. Now they are working long hours while studying, and are still poor. Student loans rack up and the students go further and further into debt.
Take the example of nursing student Tamara Oomen who was $20,000 in debt after completing her degree despite having worked an incredible amount of hours at hospitals engaging in the same amount of work as paid employees
2. Create Incentives
As soon as money is in the equation, the company now has more of an incentive to choose the best candidate for a position as opposed to simply hiring someone to do photocopying jobs and coffee runs. This helps the company become more innovative and thus creates a better market value in the future for the company. Furthermore, students will have more of an incentive to apply for positions when they are paid.
3. Devaluation and Exploitation of Students
Tying into the previous point, often when interns are hired, they are not given real jobs that are challenging and relevant and are instead photocopying, sorting through papers, and doing petty work for the employers. Most interns are university students full of potential who are capable of doing much more and thus, this unpaid internships are an active process of devaluation. On the flip side, other internship programs require the workers to work intense and vigorous jobs that rival those of paid employees, painting the other spectrum of exploitation.
Now let’s take a look at the other side of the debate…
Why Unpaid Interships are Beneficial
1. Value in Experience
People have to start somewhere and interships can act as an incredibly beneficial starting point. Before teenagers start working part-time jobs, they often first volunteer somewhere to gain relevant experience. There is value for both the employers and the employee when it comes to internships. Value isn’t always monetary.
2. Paying Interns Leads to Less Opportunity
There are limited resources and when interns are paid, there can only be a certain amount allocated to hire interns. Ultimately, this decreases the number of internships and leads to less opportunities for students as a whole. Furthermore, although they are unpaid positions, students are currently still applying and engaging in these internships simple for the opportunity to network with professionals in the field and gain relevant experience.
3. Long-term Job Interview
One of the articles said to look at the process as a long term job interview. There is no guarantee of a job afterwards, but the experience is a valuable learning experience nonetheless. Through the process however, companies do often end up hiring their interns.
My Opinion
As a business student paying expensive tuition, my opinion is evidently biased. However, I do see value in unpaid internships as well. Personally, I believe that internships that require vigorous working schedules, especially for upper year students, definitely should be paid experiences. However, I do believe that it is valuable for a first or second year student to gain unpaid experience just as a gateway into the field. I also see small businesses as a vulnerable party in this debate should unpaid internships be banned since small businesses often have less resources to allocate towards internships, yet they may still provide valuable experiences for students. Ultimately, my ideal solution would be for the government to provide subsidies for smaller business and implement paid internships for all students in upper years (or students who have fulfilled those credits).
This is an interesting debate… where do you stand? Think about it.
