Millions of Millennials — myself included — have gained invaluable firsthand experience in the professional world through paid and unpaid internships, but those opportunities are under attack by disgruntled former interns filing suit against their former employers.
Despite trying to level the playing field, these malcontents are really just curbing opportunities for other young people. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s (D-Ore.) recent proposal to pay interns working in government is on the right track — expanding opportunity — but it falls short in its funding mechanism, relying on the federal government running up more debt that will weigh heavily on the shoulders of Millennials.
As the modern economy gets more complex, internships — both paid and unpaid — have become an integral part of preparing for the job market. Studies have found that college graduates who take internships are more likely to receive job offers than those who don’t. With half of recent graduates working jobs that don’t require a degree and another 7.9 percent unemployed altogether, curtailing internships — as some are wont to do — would place an even greater strain on Millennials.
Even when internships don’t lead directly to jobs, they are valuable experiences. Employers can help open up opportunities for young people by giving them an inside look at the workplace for a few months, and the professional development the intern gleans from the experience and connections is is more valuable to them than the wages they could earn at a conventional summer job. Young people choose to complete unpaid internships at their own behest and for their own benefit — and for many of them, like me, it’s the gateway to a fulfilling career.
Unfortunately, a handful of disgruntled interns want to send a message — and they’ve missed the point. These interns willingly chose to take an unpaid position to further their careers. By trying to extract damages from employers who generously provided a learning experience, they threaten to deprive the next generation of college students of the same opportunities.
This is not to say unpaid internships are perfect. In fact, the system’s most glaring weakness is that it has the tendency to leave low-income young people, who can’t afford to take time off from a conventional job, on the outside looking in. But instead of trying to reform the system to expand opportunities and make it more inclusive, many have decided that they’d prefer to tear the whole thing down. In the name of “fairness,” they want to curb opportunity for those currently benefiting from unpaid internships, while doing nothing to help those who can’t afford to participate. It’s a lose-lose approach.
The best way forward is to expand opportunity. Dozens of private foundations — including The Fund for American Studies, The T. Howard Foundation, and others — sponsor internship programs in specific fields. Further expansion of the foundation system focused on low-income students would be to the benefit of all parties, bringing more talented young minds into the professional world by giving them a hand up without requiring them to forgo a salary or placing a further strain on taxpayers. This — and not misguided attempts to level the playing field by leveling it — is how we open doors.
Additionally, colleges and universities can continue to help their students gain professional experience by offering credit for internships, or incorporating them into school-funded work-study programs.
In introducing her bill, Bonamici said that her own experience as a legal intern helped spur her career as a lawyer and Congresswoman. She deserves a tip of the cap for her efforts to make these opportunities available to more young people, but let’s lay off the government crutch and think of new, innovative ways to bring underprivileged young people into the fold. Whatever the solution, let’s expand horizons for young professionals instead of legislating opportunity.
