Do Internships Extend Student Visas?

As I've said before, on internships young people do for free jobs that would otherwise go to paid workers, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Casually perusing Craigslist will prove that this is truest in the creative professions, including marketing.

 I felt sorry for the young college students and grads so desperate for jobs that they would work for free as “interns”.  And for their parents, paying for an education during which their kids toil like slaves for college credit.

Maybe, though, not all those laboring unpaid are penniless students.  I recently found an internship position that stated, “Must be authorized to work in this country, we will not endorse F-Status.”

Perhaps some of those interns are extending their US student visas by taking nominal “jobs.”  If so, those students and their “employers” are jumping through a loophole called Optional Practical Training (OPT).  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) permits graduate students and undergraduates who have completed or who have been pursuing their degrees for more than nine months with F-1 status to work in the US for at most one year on their student visas without needing to acquire a work H-1B visa.

A year’s a long time—time enough to gain work experience, to acquire an H1-B visa, to get married, and to keep the paycheck away from skilled native workers.

In that case I feel less sorry for those students and their parents.  Keeping American jobs out of American hands is both shameful and short-sighted.  Of course, I have a dog in this race.  I want those jobs--but I don't want to work for free.

(To be fair, don't blame Craigslist for this problem.  Craigslist is based in California, where positions that violate the FLSA are illegal.  Craigslist's official policy is that they are not allowed in its classified ads.  Officially, it requests all users to flag off the bad ads.)

Das Kapital

A young friend of mine has taken a bold stand: even though she studies at a prestigious art school, she does not plan to do an internship. She’s as dismayed as I am at the number of companies swelling their rolls with free workers.

I’ve found some interesting work on CraigsList. If I hadn’t, I would abandon it altogether, thanks to the number of companies “hiring” interns, bringing students in to do real jobs. In lieu of pay, they offer no more than to work with colleges to arrange credit. Generous ones also pay for lunch. (What was I saying about “Will work for food”?)

Even if the “hiring” managers, who think they’re getting free workers, don’t know, their HR departments should: these “internships” violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The US Department of Labor offers the following definition of an internship

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainee;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainee understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

In short, if companies look for free labor to supplant paid workers, if they want students to perform like skilled employees, they’re in violation.

If they allow an unpaid student into their shop for experience, maybe even to mess up a project or two, cheers to both the company and the student.

Most of the many, many internship postings I’ve read claim to be from startups short on staff and money. Most of them look for students in the “glamour” professions like art, marketing and writing. Nobody posts for interns in positions like bookkeeping or maintenance. I guess those kids are too smart to give away the milk for nothing.

I assume that in the startups' business plans they budget for office space, taxes and their own salaries. They omit funding for glamour jobs, counting on students to perform that work for free.

Instead of student labor, these people should be tapping their social capital.

Goodwill is most important at the beginning and end of a business. At the end of the business, when you try to sell, it’s an intangible asset. But also at the beginning, when you don’t have enough money, you need goodwill. You need that goodwill to raise enough money to convince lenders you deserve more money.

You also need the skills to promote your business. Congratulations to you if you have the skills to do it yourself. If you haven’t, you should have the enough goodwill to convince your friends to help you out. I help my own friends all the time. If you have neither skills nor goodwill, maybe you should rethink your plans.

Most kids in school today are training to be knowledge workers. Their art, writing and marketing skills are their capital; their creative output is their work product. You wouldn’t steal a cobbler’s last or new shoes or a chandler’s wax or candles. You shouldn’t use kids’ knowledge for free, either, even if everybody else is doing it.

Here’s how to “flag” postings for unpaid interns on Craigslist. Open the posting. If it offers no money, click on “prohibited” in the upper right corner. The posting won’t disappear right away, but if enough people flag, it will. When that happens enough, companies will get the message.

On behalf of everyone who likes to be paid for their work, thank you.

CraigsList Foundation Boot Camp

Does anyone want to join me at the CraigsList Foundation Non-Profit Boot Camp on August 16 in New York? I want to learn more about social entrepreneurship and big ideas for non-profits.