With summer rapidly approaching, we at the Wheel want to discuss something that is on the minds of many students: internships. We also think it is important to explore some of the issues that lie within the differences between paid and unpaid internships.
For many Emory students unpaid internships are not a problem. Many do not take internships for the money but rather for the experience to reach the next step of their careers. But other students from Emory and elsewhere don’t have that luxury. The most sought after internships are located in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., where the cost of living is much higher than in the rest of the country. The problem that is created is a socioeconomic one. Wealthier students can take unpaid internships without facing a significant personal burden. On the other hand, young adults in the lower and middle class have to personally pay for rent, transportation and food and therefore, need to focus on paid jobs. When they enter the work force they then have to compete with those students who have already had an internship or even several internships.
It’s important to note, unpaid internships aren’t as helpful as many believe. A 2013 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that only 37 percent of recent graduates that held unpaid internships were offered a job — not a huge jump from the 35 percent of those who never had an internship and were offered a job. The median starting salary was actually higher for those without any internship background — $37,087 — than those who had unpaid internships prior — $35,721. In sharp contrast, 63 percent of recent graduates who secured paid internships were offered a job with a median salary of $51,930.
As for a solution, the obvious course of action seems to be to push for all internships to be paid. Unpaid internships are exploitative and widen the already prevalent socioeconomic gap. While this solution is appealing, it has its own drawbacks. Companies who have been forced to pay their interns due to stricter government regulation have cut back on their programs immensely, making these programs far more competitive and thus exclusive. This further segments the young adult working population into those who are able to secure desirable internships and those who cannot, leading to a huge portion of the population never gaining valuable work experience.
There is a deeper, more troubling issue with making all internships paid; who will actually be securing them? The most competitive internships go to the students who attend the most academically rigorous private colleges in the country, and those colleges also happen to be the most expensive. While with merit and financial aid, lower income students are able to enter these top universities, the majority of those students come from higher income backgrounds. This is part of a much larger problem and goes well beyond the scope of securing internships.
After a back and forth between these sides, the one thing we know certainly is that the current system is not working. Unpaid internships reinforce income inequality, and are, in many cases, exploitative and often have very little monetary benefit. Making more internships paid is a step in the right direction. Some companies have provided nearby housing to their interns as opposed to pay, cutting back on the students’ rent expenses. Colleges have also begun providing stipends to compensate students who cannot otherwise afford to take unpaid internships, thus making it an option. These are all helpful steps, but they won’t fix the underlying issues.
In our discussion, we realized this topic is complicated and messy and doesn’t have any clear or easy solution. The problems associated with internships will continue until the American educational system as a whole undergoes a massive overhaul. Until then, implementing these quick fixes will have to do.
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Bad logic. The current system being imperfect is not a logical argument, by itself, that we should ban unpaid internships. Like you said, that will have serious pitfalls, including contributing to the same problem you’re trying to solve. So why, knowing this, you still want to do it.. there’s some sort of logical disconnect here. You’re seeming to ignore the potential for making things much worse even though you’re aware that banning unpaid internships may not make the situation better because of the same drawbacks associated with unpaid internships in the first place. So I think you just want a feel good solution.
Taking our time to come up with a proper, precise solution is better than rushing in with something that won’t work just because “we have to do something”. Yes, we have to fix our problems but we owe it to ourselves to take our time and find the correct solution.
A doctor wouldn’t panic upon seeing you have a serious medical condition and give you the wrong medication in a quick knee jerk reaction. We would call him a careless doctor who is bad at his job. It’s better to do it right the first time.