I just had lunch with a summer intern here at Time Inc. My employer pays its interns (though my friend was shocked that they categorize the housing stipend as a “signing bonus” and thus lop off a huge chunk in taxes). But many don’t. These bosses seem to think of it as an even exchange: I give you experience, you give me free labor.
This is not how capitalism works. I too am gaining many things through my job–experience, exposure, cup after cup of piping hot water for my green tea. But I am also delivering a product that my company sells, and you bet your boots I expect compensation for my services.
I fail to see how this is any different for an intern. True, their services are slightly less specialized. At my company their jobs involve a lot of research and fact-checking. But those are services we desperately need, particularly after years of layoffs in which we got rid of the people who performed those services for full pay plus benefits.
Small businesses argue they can’t afford the extra salaries. Phooey. According to Jobweb, the average internship pays $15.44 an hour. Some pay far more; Harvard Business School students make as much as $10,000 a month as consultants, according to HBS’s internship salary survey. But even your neighborhood realtor can afford minimum wage for the high school senior maintaining its web site.
Naturally, internship pay should correlate with the intern’s value to the organization (for 10 grand a month, those consultant-interns better be delivering a failproof profit strategy). But no intern provides no value. Pay them. They’ll work harder.