Getting paid for your job – how hard can it be?

It is that time of the year again- various careers fairs being organised, firms coming in to deliver presentations and everyone talking about internships. Whether you are a first year, second year or graduating soon, having an internship these days seems to be more important than having a degree. With internships being key to getting a well-paid job in the future, many of us will end up, either willingly or unwillingly, opting for an unpaid internship.

A survey conducted by Graduate Prospects, a careers agency, indicates that around 43% of all the students graduating between 2006 and 2010 who undertook work experience were not paid. Further estimates by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills suggest that there are around 15,000 to 20,000 unpaid interns in the UK. However, the lack of data available from Inland Revenue and other sources means that this statistic is likely to be highly underestimated.

The issue of unpaid internships is not just specific to the UK. Students in the US seem to suffer the same mistreatment by the employers, where half the students doing an internship are not paid at all for their work. Indeed, some students even have to pay the employers for the “privilege” of an unpaid internship.

Glendon Salter, an employment lawyer at Hogan Lovells says, “If interns are required to work a set number of hours each day and/or are obliged to perform certain duties or provide services, it is likely that they would be deemed to be a worker and, therefore, be entitled to receive the national minimum wage.”

The government has recently taken steps to ensure that the employers are not exploiting the interns. The Trades Union Congress has published a code of best practice for internships. The document states that employers offering placements of six weeks or more should pay the National Minimum Wage to all interns who contribute to the company, have a list of duties and work set hours.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has created the website graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk to help recent graduates look for paid internships. Unpaid interns who believe they should be compensated for the work they have done during their internship can call the Government’s Pay and Work Rights Helpline for advice on 0800 917 2368.

According to the critics, in a time when graduate unemployment is at its highest level for a decade, advertising for unpaid internships that last for as long as six months not only breaks the law but also stifles social mobility. Unpaid internships have become a major burden for students already troubled by the rising university fees and increasing cost of living.

However, making it mandatory for the employers to pay all interns could backfire and ruin work experience opportunities for thousands of graduates. If the employers are made to pay, they might offer fewer placements to begin with. Worse, paid work experience could lead to internships being conflated with entry-level jobs, depriving many fresh graduates of the skills gained by work experience opportunities. Why pay a fresh-out-of-uni-graduate when you can pay a recession-hit-25-year-old?

The value of internships is not in the salary but in the experience. Although unpaid internships make life harder for those who cannot afford to work for peanuts, statistics suggest that students with work experience are more likely to get a job. Unpaid internships are then perhaps a necessary sacrifice that comes with being in a competitive job market.