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Obama Outlaws Unpaid For Profit Internships

Monday April 12, 2010

I waited a few days before putting this one up but apparently the Obama administration has outlawed unpaid internships by for profit entities. It is of course, in their eyes, okay for a non profit, read government, to provide an unpaid internship. In the face of double digit unemployment in multiple states, this is an most unfortunate policy. Read Jeffrey Tucker, a blogger by the way, on this. I have a link at the left to Mish's Economic Blog on the left sidebar, click and read his thoughts today. 

Accounting has generally required a paid internship but I have had students in unpaid spots where I believed the experience was well worth it. As one can readily see in our class discussions, those that have experience in a particular area, say payroll reporting, have a leg up on those that do not, this only comes from OJT, on the job training. 

I suggest you remember this when it comes time to vote. I have not encountered accounting firms who were anything but genuine about their intern hires, ditto for other local business. 

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4 responses to “Obama Outlaws Unpaid For Profit Internships”

  1. Steven Beeler Avatar
    Steven Beeler

    This makes very little sense. Sure, everybody would like to be paid for their efforts. However, we live in a country that affords us to make choices and nobody is forced to work for free. Many young people are willing to make the sacrifice of interning without receiving financial compensation. The gaining of relevant experience is very often worth it. Enforcing employers to pay their interns may just dissuade them from hiring interns at all, especially in tough economic times. If this happens, nobody wins.

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    In fact when I first heard this rumor I waited to have it confirmed on multiple sites before commenting, what a terrible idea. this like the minimum wage, the same wage for downtown NYC as for Fargo ND, is not realistic.

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  3. Laura contreras Avatar
    Laura contreras

    Internship is very important for those students who just have that degree and no work experience. Isn’t that what college is mostly all about, you go to college to get a degree so that you can get a better job and have a great career. Internship is a great way for the student to get their foot in the door and the only way I could see a student no getting paid for their internship if it was for a class credit during school. Otherwise they should get monetary compensation and I would like to see every degree to include a hand on class training in a real job setting. By getting a more monetary compensation for internship there will have more students working towards their career. Not like some students with psychology degree and work for McDonald as a front line manager because they can’t afford to quit their $8.50 for a $7 or nor compensation internship job and still support themselves much less a family.

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  4. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Laura raises an interesting point, are we going to college for the benefit of learning, get a psy degree, or for a more specific outcome, a job? I worry that a slow economy will not allow all students to have a paid internship, better an unpaid one than no internship…but these rules would prevent that

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