All Internships Should be Paid
PRO (2 arguments)
Grabbers:
1: “Unpaid internships are nothing but a way for companies to exploit young people for free labor and in most cases, are entirely illegal” - Adam Conover, reporter and comedian.
2: Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said: “Unpaid internships are a modern scandal which must end.”
Definitions:
Unpaid Internship: An intern that works for no money.
Paid Internship: Where an intern works for minimum wage or above.
Weighing Mechanism:
We believe this debate should be weighed on which side is the most beneficial for the intern.
Paid internships provide valuable experience, and in most cases, lead to real jobs. If all internships were paid, interns would get more jobs offers. This obviously proves that paid internships are better than unpaid internships because interns getting jobs is always a good thing.
A survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that paid internships are more likely to lead to a job offer and a higher salary than internships that didn’t pay. Drilling down deeper, the NACE survey found that interns working at private, for-profit companies were more likely receive offers for full-time work. The report revealed that 72.2% of those students received job offers. By comparison, less than 43.9% of students who were working as unpaid interns received offers. In fact, the gap between students who worked as unpaid interns and students who didn’t work as interns at all is only one percent. This trend appeared at every type of company, including nonprofits. The biggest disparity was at state/local government employers who offered 50.5% of their paid interns jobs vs. 33.8% for those who were unpaid. Additionally, a study of 16,000 college students by Forbes that showed that college graduates working at a paid internship, will end up with a paid job offer 60% of the time, For those who were working in unpaid internships, however, the news is much less encouraging. Thirty-seven percent of unpaid interns got job offers, according to the data. That’s just 1% better than graduates with no internship experience, 36% of whom got job offers. Judge, paid internships are much more similar to real jobs, and thus they provide more experience and a higher chance of getting a full time job. The goal of internships is to teach young individuals the skills they need to succeed at their jobs later in life. Paid internships are achieving this, and unpaid internships are not. An unpaid intern is just someone to fetch the coffee and print things for the office, and this is just a waste of time. Furthermore, companies know this and as a result, they don't hire unpaid interns more than regular people. If we were to stop unpaid internships, then all the internships would be helpful to the intern.
According different study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2013 found that 63% of college students with paid internships had landed jobs before graduation. However, just 37% of students with unpaid internships were successful in finding jobs before graduation, barely more than the 35% of students with no internships who had landed jobs. According to Edwin Koc, the director of strategic and foundation research at the National Association of Colleges and Employers, "The unpaid internship had no impact relative to having no internship, at least in terms of getting a job."
NACE, CNBC
Paid interns face a lesser financial burden than those who are forced to accept an unpaid internship and simultaneously work a paid position, or borrow money, simply to make ends meet. If an intern is not being paid, they have to find another job to make money, rather than paid interns who get the benefits of an internship and a job with a salary. In addition, requiring internships to be paid would generate competition amongst businesses competing for talented new recruits, and result in higher salaries for entry-level employees. This means that when interns get permanent jobs, they could earn more money to pay for necessities and pay off college.
Many industries are concentrated in a few cities. For example, in the broadcast industry, internships are concentrated in New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Many students cannot afford to stay there and work for no money. As a result, thousands of students have a harder time finding employment after graduation. If the internships were paid, they could work a real job, and the money would make it possible. 69% of students who graduated from public colleges in 2014 had student loan debt, with an average of $28,950 per borrower. Already, most of these students are struggling to pay this debt. It is a lot easier if you can work a paid internship. The average hourly wage for a college senior intern is $17.57. That means that students working full time paid internships over the summer can earn up to $10,000. In addition, when paid interns got full-time jobs, their starting salaries were significantly higher than the starting salaries for unpaid interns. A study by NACE showed that the median offer for paid interns at a private, for-profit company was $53,521. In comparison, the median offer for students who took unpaid internships was $34,375. The same held true across industry sectors including nonprofit ($41,876 vs. $31,443), state/local government ($42,693 vs. $32,969), and federal government sectors ($48,750 vs. $42,501).
If college students work as paid interns during the year and over the summer, they will earn enough money to pay back their loans and prepare for their future. They will have better jobs, more money, and overall be more successful. In addition, paid interns receive better jobs and more money later in life, meaning their paid internships will continue benefitting them. Unpaid interns do not see these benefits, and because of that, all internships should be paid. If we pay interns, the future will be better for everyone.
The Atlantic, NACE
CON (3 arguments)
Grabbers:
1: “I'm here give you the inside scoop on internships. As a college student, I've completed a ton of internships. Whether an internship is paid, for credit, unpaid or not-for-credit doesn't change its value. Internships are investments in your future.” - Amber Shiflett, Marketing Intern
2: “Paid internships and unpaid internships literally have the same effect in the long run.” -Rachel Gillett one of the heads of a internship hiring program.
Definitions:
We define unpaid internships as legal internships that are not paid. These internships must follow the six main rules from the DOL, which includes the fact that ‘the employer should not benefit from the work the intern is doing.
Weighing Mechanism:
The resolution states that all internships should be paid. We think that most should be paid, but some shouldn’t. If we can show that any unpaid internship is beneficial, we should win this debate.
There are a lot of regulations that ensure internships are different from paid work. According to US News, regulations ensure that internships must be educational, shouldn’t directly benefit the employer, aren’t a tryout period, and don’t displace existing workers, among other requirements. This makes sure that internships are fair and teach students their jobs. However, as these internships are not directly benefiting the employer, it is hard for employers to pay interns. Companies have to make a profit, and it is hard to do that if they are paying interns, especially when the intern sometimes messes up and loses money. This is important because it is in the students’ best interests to have these internships, and if most companies would not be willing/cannot pay their interns, that would result in a drastic decline of internship abilities, which are crucial to education about specific jobs.
If all internships had to be paid, companies would employ less interns. According to Inside Sources, an estimated 500,000-to-1 million unpaid interns are employed annually, and there wouldn’t be enough paid internships to go around if unpaid internships were banned. There are also 400,000 paid interns a year. Furthermore, NACE's latest intern compensation report found that the average paid intern makes about $16.30 an hour. That means it would cost companies a collective total of about 22.9 million dollars AN HOUR to employ all interns. According to Western Michigan University, an intern is supposed to work 40 hours a week. That means it would cost companies more than 47 trillion dollars a year to employ all these interns. That's more than double the US debt. Judge, clearly it is impossible to pay all interns. It would cost a ridiculous amount of money, and companies couldn’t afford it.
Impact: Many companies cannot afford to pay their interns a salary. Instead, they teach them how to perform their job properly. If companies were required to pay interns, they would not be able to employ as many interns. As a result, fewer college students could actually get jobs as interns, and most students would be less well prepared for their later jobs.
US News
According to the Washington Post, Internships are done for school credit, and for gaining knowledge, most often through schools. “The training received at the office or business site of the internship should be similar to the training/education received in the classroom. Therefore, college credit is often provided to students in lieu of actual payment.” - Washington Post. It is unreasonable for companies to take on the burden of students who are supposedly doing this for their educational benefit, and have to pay for them.
Employers of interns go out of their way to take the time to educate interns. Employers expend more time and effort training interns than they do entry-level employees. This is a key difference between an intern and an entry-level employee. Interns are students.When interns make mistakes, the employer discusses with them at length the situation, why it was a mistake, what would be a better choice, and helps educate the intern. When employees make mistakes, they may get fired. Having the responsibility of training an intern requires additional time and effort on the employer’s part to fill out necessary paperwork. More than just filling out forms, employers draft thoughtful evaluations of the student’s performance and improvement over time. These evaluations are submitted to the intern’s college or university. For instance, for an internship to be legal, It’s for the benefit of the intern, The intern doesn’t displace paid employees, The employer doesn’t benefit from work the intern is doing, “and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.” and more. The thing to take away is the last one, that interns may impede operations and doesn't benefit from the interns.
Students are not forced to do internships, yet by doing so they reap the benefits of potential college recommendations, first hand job experience, etc. Internships are one method of learning, as they are most often done for some sort of school credit, therefore they should not be paid. It is best for both the interns, as they many opportunities to have employers who are willing to spend time explaining things to them, and for the employers, who already put a lot of work into developing interns and do not have to pay.
Interns choose to work as interns, and they do it because they think it will benefit them. For instance, in Houston, there is a company called Genesys Works an organization that trains underprivileged high school seniors — many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college — to work as IT interns. For example, Francess Kargbo, a senior at Mount Vernon High School, said she was apprehensive about her internship with Genesys Works, which assigned her to the information technology department of international commercial law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Her only previous work experience was at Taco Bell, and the 17-year-old from the Alexandria section of Fairfax County had no experience in IT. She said she worried she was not smart enough. But after her first couple of days on the job last week, she said she felt like she had a place. “I fit in really comfortably,” Kargbo said. “They make me feel welcome. They’re very kind, and they’re very supportive.” Kargbo, who aspires to be a doctor, said Genesys Works has helped her with her college and scholarship applications. Her parents did not go to college, and she struggled to navigate the complex process. Kargbo said the program already has given her the same kind of boost Robles found. “I had a bad lack of confidence,” Kargbo said. Now, she said, “I can do anything I set my mind to.” Many other unpaid interns have found their time to be very beneficial. While talking about unpaid internships, entrepreneur Zak Slayback stated “from my own experience, being an unpaid intern and working with unpaid interns have been immensely valuable and pleasurable experiences. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren't for my unpaid internships — I got a lot more value from the work experience, the connections, the social capital, and the skills picked up then I got from the fancy research fellowship I had in college one summer or the paid internship I had after graduating from high school.”
In a lot of cases, the intern benefits more from an internship than the employer. In that case, why would it make sense for the employer to pay the intern? Judge, remember, under the framework of this debate, we need to prove that ONE and only one internship should be unpaid. Clearly we have done this and therefore should win this debate.