Unpaid intern divide: Experience vs. exploitation?

NORFOLK

Hannah Bombelles had a tough choice.

The Cornell University sophomore from Norfolk is majoring in film and economics. She had two options for summer work. Each touched on one facet of her studies. They differed in their financial rewards.

Bombelles could return to a local company, where she worked last summer in financial reporting. The pay, said Bombelles, 20, would be “well over minimum wage.”

Or she could go out West to intern with a TV and film director.

The opportunity to be in Los Angeles for a summer, get an inside look at the entertainment industry and develop contacts was tantalizing. The only trouble: Bombelles wouldn’t get paid.

“I was very torn,” she said. “I was leaning heavily toward saying yes” to L.A.

More students these days must consider unpaid internships, as companies cut back in the face of economic hardship. Of the internships advertised for Old Dominion University students, about half are unpaid, said Tom Wunderlich, assistant dean of career management.

Advocates say unpaid internships provide valuable experience and later help students land full-time jobs. Critics say they exploit students hungry for experience, favor higher-income families and often violate the law.

“Everybody should be concerned about any employer who is employing people and not paying them,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that issued a report on the issue this year.

“As you move up the food chain,” he said, “if you have people working for nothing, you’ll have more people working at minimum wage. It drags down the entire wage structure.”

He also said the practice can lead to “widespread violations of the law.”

After the institute issued its study and The New York Times wrote about the topic, the U.S. Department of Labor released a “fact sheet” on the legal requirements for unpaid internships.

Employers must meet six criteria to forgo paying interns. They include that the company “derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern,” that “the intern does not displace regular employees,” and that the experience be “similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.”

The law does not pertain to government agencies or not-for-profit organizations.

Eisenbrey offered an example: An internship at a science lab may be unpaid if the student is learning about “techniques such as how to do a tissue culture.” But the student must be paid if he is “washing the glassware in the lab or adding food to the Petri dishes.”

In response, 13 college presidents last month sent a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, criticizing the department’s “apparent recent shift toward the regulation of internships.”

None of the presidents are from Virginia, but Jim McBride, career services director for the University of Virginia, shares their concern.

“Is it unfortunate that students are working in jobs and not getting paid? I think it is,” he said. “Is it unfortunate that these jobs would tend to favor people that are economically not as challenged? I think that’s unfortunate, as well.

“At the same time,” he said, “I think it’s going to be unfortunate if a stringent application of the law forces employers to eliminate internships. No one wins from that.”

The presidents who signed the letter, Eisenbrey said , are “misinformed about what the department is up to or dangerously ignorant of the law. It’s not that the department is doing anything new; it’s telling people to follow the law.”

Colleges, he said, have an incentive to perpetuate the status quo. Sometimes, the student gets course credit for the internship – and must pay the college the equivalent in tuition.

“It’s a free ride for the university – they don’t have to pay a professor – and they’re still getting tuition,” Eisenbrey said. “So the student gets burned at both ends.” Some schools say professors closely supervise interns.

Students often speak happily about the unpaid jobs.

Alisa Crider, who graduated Saturday from Virginia Wesleyan College with a degree in communications, has had unpaid internships with the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and Hampton Roads magazine. She said they have helped hone her skills and widen contacts for a future job.

“I don’t mind at all that I’m not getting paid,” said Crider, 21, of Virginia Beach, “because the experience you get out of it, the people you meet – it’s totally worth it.”

The Edward Jones investment firm has changed its internship policy in response to the discussion. Edward Jones branches used to have a mix of paid and unpaid interns. This summer, all interns will be paid, said Ken Dude, a partner in St. Louis who oversees human resources.

Interns perform a variety of functions, such as handing questionnaires to clients and helping with mailings, Dude said. “All of that gets them exposed to the industry, but we can’t argue there was no value to us. Therefore, we will switch our internships.”

Four other companies contacted by The Pilot – Bank of America, Norfolk Southern Corp., TowneBank and the KPMG accounting firm – said they don’t offer unpaid internships. “Anyone that works here gets paid,” said Judy Stephenson, TowneBank’s human resources director.

Yet Wunderlich, the career center director at Old Dominion, said he’s seen plenty of unpaid internships in the financial and accounting sectors. The only field that doesn’t have them, he said, is engineering.

Sentara Healthcare offers paid and unpaid internships, said Laura Amdusky, the manager of recruitment. In the unpaid internships, she said, students usually complete clinical rotations to fulfill program requirements in fields such as nursing.

Cash-strapped not-for-profit organizations, which are exempt from the law, are more likely to offer unpaid internships. Nauticus and St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children, both in Norfolk, and the Virginia Beach Aquarium & Marine Center in Virginia Beach, are among those that don’t pay interns.

“We do feel that we offer an incredible opportunity for them – working one-on-one with staff members who are currently doing the job that they might want to do when they get out of college,” said Kathleen Reed, the volunteer resource manager at the aquarium.

Attorneys say for-profit businesses shouldn’t take chances. “My advice is, if they’re bringing in an unpaid intern and that intern is going to be doing productive work for the employer, then they shouldn’t do it,” said William Furr, chairman of the employment law section for Willcox & Savage in Norfolk.

“If it’s a close call,” he said, “pay them minimum wage. It’s not that big of an expense.”

The penalties for violating the law, he said, include providing double back pay, plus attorney’s fees.

“The fact that it’s gotten a lot of scrutiny has been good for employers,” Furr said. “Those who were not aware of the rules are now aware of them.”

Anne Randolph Powell, 22, of Norfolk, a graduate of Auburn University, had two unpaid internships last year with public relations firms in Washington and Hampton Roads, which she did not want to name.

The Washington internship last summer was for college credit. Between tuition and living expenses, it cost her family at least $7,000, said her mother, Carol Branch. In Washington, Powell said, her tasks included helping with research and compiling media lists. In the local job, she wrote at least nine news releases.

“I would have loved to have gotten paid,” said Powell, now a paid development associate at the Virginia Stage Company, “but I got the experience. My portfolio is packed.” Monica Van Vleck, a Virginia Beach freshman at the University of San Diego, will begin an unpaid internship this month with a local financial services firm. She expects to observe employees and help with a variety of tasks such as making calls and working on projects.

Like Powell, she voiced disappointment in the lack of pay but faith in the long-range benefits. “The odds of me getting a paid internship were not too high,” Van Vleck, 18, said, because she is not a junior or senior. “I know that the bottom line is 'Experience matters.’”

And what of Bombelles?

She’ll be home to work for the local company, which she declined to identify. She said no to the director.

“I will probably regret not doing it this summer, but I didn’t have a choice,” Bombelles said. “There really was no comparison, just because of the finances.” She figures the California job would have cost her family thousands of dollars.

But she hasn’t given up hope for the future. She’ll be saving money this summer. Next year, she hopes to be in L.A.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com