I love that the company I work for now doesn't have interns. Instead, they set aside enough money in the budget to have a part-time employee work for 20 hours a week for $10 an hour. Sure, we have enough work to keep a dozen unpaid interns busy. But we prefer the reliability and talent that comes with paying just one person. Since these people also tend to stick around a lot longer, we often end up hiring them full-time when an opening becomes avaiable, which saves us the time and money of trying to find a qualified person for an opening.

I love that sofar -- it's the right thing to do.

"But we prefer the reliability and talent that comes with paying just one person." -- I'm with you on this.

The job I learned the most from was the one I had in high school. I worked for a farm that had a store where it sold what it produced. I learned how to make change, work long hours, be responsible, and take pride in a job well done. Most importantly, I was paid. That experience is what made me valuable to employers down the line. I did a fair bit of intership work as well, but nothing prepared me for real life like the two summers I spent on the farm.

Depends what you're getting out of the internship. In some cases, the experience, training, professional contacts, and networking opportunities are worth well more than any amount of compensation. This was the case for two unpaid internships I held in high school (venture capitalist and planetary scientist). Both were highly-educated, in-demand professionals who took time to teach me about their fields out of their own generosity. No doubt these experiences contributed directly to my college admittance and scholarships, saving me tens of thousands of dollars over 4 years. Expecting payment on top of that would have been ludricous.

OTOH, an unpaid internship where you're just stuffing envelopes is a waste of time. No surprise that companies are jumping on the opportunity for free labor, but it's up to the student to be smart about the opportunities that are worth their time.

Also, what I saw in college was that internships in business, engineering, computers etc ALWAYS paid. The summer after junior year (the big year for internships) myself and peers in these fields were making $20-35/hr. And these were structured programs designed to lead to a job offer by the end of the summer. Whereas my friends pursuing "glamourous" fields like communications, event planning, marketing, fashion etc were lucky to find a relevant internship at all, let alone one that paid. That should send a big red flag about your hiring prospects in the future, and how much your degree is really worth.

In some cases, the experience, training, professional contacts, and networking opportunities are worth well more than any amount of compensation. This was the case for two unpaid internships I held in high school

Yeah, the nature of the internship matters a great deal. If you're shadowing a professional in your field, and that professional is taking time out of their day to introduce you to contacts/teach you things, then it makes sense that it's unpaid. I've also seen good unpaid internships (often called 'externships') where a group of interns works on a project or simulation together that mirrors the actual work done by the company and are critiqued/guided by professionals in doing so. But that project doesn't actually contribute to the company's bottom line in any way.

But if the intern is doing actual work, whether that's stuffing envelopes, writing articles/press releases, updating the website, planning events or basically doing anything that a paid employee would otherwise do .... that work should be paid.

My litmus test has always been this:

If the intern didn't show up or suddenly quit, would his/her responsibilities need to be taken care of by someone else?

If yes, that work should be paid.

I wonder how it might bias the results of the survey that they only use the word "internship" and not "fellowship" etc. Oftentimes, there are summer jobs at universities that are through the various science departments. They are usually considered fellowships, but are otherwise intern-like in the short duration. These may or may not provide real-world skills, but are invariably interesting and educational. Or, at least that was my experience.

I did unpaid internships in college, and it never bothered me. The experience and contacts proved valuable, and I was able to get college credit. That meant I ended up paying for the experience, but it shaved a semester off my college time, which saved me far more than I would have made working at a minimum wage job that summer.

I guess if you have a choice between a real job, and an unpaid internship you should take the real job.

However, for too many people, the internship may be their only option, and there is nothing wrong with learning something, if in the process of doing it, you can tread water financially and stay off welfare.

So someone correct me if you've seen it elsewhere, but this unpaid-internship thing seems to be mostly a creation of the entertainment and media industries. In aerospace, I've never seen or heard of an unpaid internship. We have paid interns; they don't make a lot, but they do make something.

Interns at Savannah River Site are paid.

That said -- where did the idea that an employer owes you something unilaterally come from?

You are selling your labor. If you accept a position with no pay, you are agreeing that your labor has no value expressable in a paycheck.

Isn't this the business of the consenting adults?

In the healthcare field for things like nursing, phlebotomy, etc., you have to put in so many hours of hands-on training to get all your certifications to be able to work. These are typically unpaid and considered part of school itself. I've known three people to have unpaid internships, one with a newspaper, one with an advertising agency, and I can't specifically remember the other one but it had to do with a political science degree they got and it was for the city. All the others I knew that did internships got paid at least something for what they did. These were in science, engineering, business/accounting, and legal fields.

Again, yes, but it doesn't make it right for businesses to do this. Because you can exploit people...

There are many different ways to exploit people. An unpaid internship is only one of the possibilities.

There are many places I would work for free in order to learn something from a master craftsman.

Exploitation seems to be one of the buzz words, that feminists and communists want you to get all worked up over so you will join the cause.

They see anything short of equal division of all the business assets among all employees, right down to the janitors, as some sort of capitalist gulag.

"Because you can exploit people..."

Interns cannot be exploited without their consent. Claiming otherwise pushes the idea that a nanny is needed for them. Gee, government! Do something!