Unpaid Internships - More or Less Opportunity
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I have to admit, I am intrinsically opposed to unpaid or underpaid internships. I strongly believe that work should equal a minimum wage payment in return. While internships often provide an individual with invaluable experience and are great resume and network building tools, offering them at below minimum wage means you limit your pools of candidates to those who can afford the opportunity. Many internships lead to full time positions; therefore, by limiting the initial pool of applicants, you are also limiting access to certain organizations, and in turn great opportunities.
My first low paying internship was on Capitol Hill. I had just graduated from undergrad and wanted to take a year off, so that spring I deferred my entrance to law school and applied for an internship with Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. That summer I ended up having emergency back surgery, didn’t have health insurance, and was out of work for a month. The day I got the call offering me the internship I was still coming off the meds from the surgery, but I said I would be there. I had $200 to my name when I arrived in Washington, so I tended bar both weekend days and three nights a week. I was always the last waitress to get there, which meant I always had to close down the bar. I got home at 3AM and went to work at 7:30AM. My internship paid $600 a month, which breaks down to $3.75 an hour. I was the only intern in my intern class who had to have another job. Everyone else I interned with was living off their parents - not that there is anything wrong with that to build your resume. However, this meant that when my intern colleagues were going to networking events after work, I was rushing to my second job.
The structure of the opportunities made Capitol Hill seem like a place of privilege. You either had to really want the opportunity or come from an affluent family. I couldn't understand how representatives could argue for increasing minimum wage when they didn't provide that for their own employees. I also didn't have health insurance while I was interning on Capitol Hill because the cheapest coverage I could find was $360 a month- kind of interesting to ponder in the wake of this great health care debate. My tenure on Capitol Hill was exciting, revealing, and character building.
After working on Capitol Hill, I went on to law school with aspirations of becoming a securities lawyer. Before I even knew about the 33 and 34 acts, I was dead set on securities- it had a lot of sex appeal. So I applied for an internship with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I was politely persistent with the gentleman in charge of hiring. He sent me a rejection letter and I wrote back telling him if any of his candidates backed out that I was still extremely interested and to please keep me in mind. They call this begging for a job - a job that didn’t pay anything- not even $3.75 an hour. Actually, interning at the SEC cost me money because I had to pay for the class credit and if you are an intern you don’t qualify for the transportation subsidy other government employees are eligible for. This brings me to another interesting point, all law schools have a policy that if you are getting credit for the work hours you can't get paid. I think I shouldn't have to pay tuition for those credits. Do law schools think money grows on trees? I guess they think it grows at Direct Loan Services or Sallie Mae; even those days may be coming to an end. Regardless, I wanted the job and I eventually got it. I think the gentleman in charge of hiring felt bad for me or appreciated my persistence. He emailed a few days later offering me the position. I had officially convinced him that my free labor was worth the opportunity.
I lost twenty pounds and got sick several times that semester. I worked on the side to pay the bills, took eighteen credit hours and interned at the SEC. I hated securities work, but discovered that on the other side of Union Station was another agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is where I currently work. However, my battle against unpaid and underpaid positions was not over yet.
The same semester I was at the SEC I interviewed for a summer position to clerk for a judge through a program that was aimed at recruiting minorities and low income candidates. The program was sponsored by the bar and funded by large firms. I already had an offer to work at a law firm but loved the idea of working for a judge. My interview for the position was with a partner at Covington & Burling. I remember walking in to their grand lobby in my very on sale suit and feeling extremely out of place. The position offered $1300 for the whole summer, which breaks down to $4.06 an hour if you do a typical eight week summer internship. In case you are not familiar with the cost of living in D.C. or the United States, $4.06 an hour doesn’t get you much. During that interview I decided to politely voice my opinion on how low the pay was and how I thought if the program was really aimed at helping minorities and low income students get ahead, perhaps it should at the very least pay them minimum wage. I politely explained how hard it is to constantly work for below average wage when you have no other means of financial support. I went on to explain how the structure of the clerkship program did not align with its goals to assist low income and minority students gain access to clerkships.
I am not arguing that all internships should pay large sums of money or that there is anything wrong with working two jobs to get good experience. I really do consider those years my character building years. Those experiences instilled in me a great work ethic and taught me the value of money, even more so than my parents had already taught me. However, I think paying someone a fair wage opens the opportunity to a wider pool of candidates and benefits all of society in the end. To my surprise, this partner highly recommended me for the position but I passed on the opportunity. I had to make some money that summer in order to survive the next semester of law school and save for my bar exam fees. Sadly, it was not really a choice.
My unpaid and underpaid internships gave my resume the boost it needed, but they took a toll on my health and sanity. They made me feel like I was fighting to belong in a world of law and politics that weren’t structured to provide me opportunities. I was constantly struggling to participate in networking opportunities that were limited to those who could afford them. I know it is an idealistic thought not supported by history, but I think law and politics should be the least elitist. These are the two areas where you want your hard working people who understand struggle. Only making these opportunities available to those in the upper class destroys the middle class, limits the generation of ideas that have made this country what it is today and has a significant long term impact on the economy.
I don’t regret my internships. That gentleman at the SEC who eventually offered me the position is a great mentor. He is a Harvard law graduate, but I didn’t learn this until over lunch one day -- a year after my internship. He is passionate about family and food and has a great sense of humor that truly puts things into perspective. I went to lunch with the partner at Covington a few weeks after my interview, and when I offered to pay she told me I could pay when I was rich and famous. Then we debated which was better and both determined rich and not famous was best. I will always remember that conversation because it’s such a boost of confidence when someone in that position believes in your future abilities. She is a great person who is always willing to lend an open minded ear and provide advice - even though at the time I was discussing an extremely taboo topic for an interview - money. And my boss on Capitol Hill has become a life-long friend. He flew to my wedding in Belize and my husband and I are going to his in Kentucky this fall. He is probably one of the funniest and nicest guys I know.
I realize that public interest positions will never be able to compete with the private sector; however, they should offer minimum wage. And while I believe that internships should pay, I also believe that at some point everyone should take the pay cut or swallow the low pay and take a public interest job. You will grow more than you will ever imagine. I was very fortunate to have the experiences I had but I think we need to strike a better balance by structuring internship opportunities in a way that makes them more feasible to those who do not have another income source.
My first low paying internship was on Capitol Hill. I had just graduated from undergrad and wanted to take a year off, so that spring I deferred my entrance to law school and applied for an internship with Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. That summer I ended up having emergency back surgery, didn’t have health insurance, and was out of work for a month. The day I got the call offering me the internship I was still coming off the meds from the surgery, but I said I would be there. I had $200 to my name when I arrived in Washington, so I tended bar both weekend days and three nights a week. I was always the last waitress to get there, which meant I always had to close down the bar. I got home at 3AM and went to work at 7:30AM. My internship paid $600 a month, which breaks down to $3.75 an hour. I was the only intern in my intern class who had to have another job. Everyone else I interned with was living off their parents - not that there is anything wrong with that to build your resume. However, this meant that when my intern colleagues were going to networking events after work, I was rushing to my second job.
The structure of the opportunities made Capitol Hill seem like a place of privilege. You either had to really want the opportunity or come from an affluent family. I couldn't understand how representatives could argue for increasing minimum wage when they didn't provide that for their own employees. I also didn't have health insurance while I was interning on Capitol Hill because the cheapest coverage I could find was $360 a month- kind of interesting to ponder in the wake of this great health care debate. My tenure on Capitol Hill was exciting, revealing, and character building.
After working on Capitol Hill, I went on to law school with aspirations of becoming a securities lawyer. Before I even knew about the 33 and 34 acts, I was dead set on securities- it had a lot of sex appeal. So I applied for an internship with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I was politely persistent with the gentleman in charge of hiring. He sent me a rejection letter and I wrote back telling him if any of his candidates backed out that I was still extremely interested and to please keep me in mind. They call this begging for a job - a job that didn’t pay anything- not even $3.75 an hour. Actually, interning at the SEC cost me money because I had to pay for the class credit and if you are an intern you don’t qualify for the transportation subsidy other government employees are eligible for. This brings me to another interesting point, all law schools have a policy that if you are getting credit for the work hours you can't get paid. I think I shouldn't have to pay tuition for those credits. Do law schools think money grows on trees? I guess they think it grows at Direct Loan Services or Sallie Mae; even those days may be coming to an end. Regardless, I wanted the job and I eventually got it. I think the gentleman in charge of hiring felt bad for me or appreciated my persistence. He emailed a few days later offering me the position. I had officially convinced him that my free labor was worth the opportunity.
I lost twenty pounds and got sick several times that semester. I worked on the side to pay the bills, took eighteen credit hours and interned at the SEC. I hated securities work, but discovered that on the other side of Union Station was another agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is where I currently work. However, my battle against unpaid and underpaid positions was not over yet.
The same semester I was at the SEC I interviewed for a summer position to clerk for a judge through a program that was aimed at recruiting minorities and low income candidates. The program was sponsored by the bar and funded by large firms. I already had an offer to work at a law firm but loved the idea of working for a judge. My interview for the position was with a partner at Covington & Burling. I remember walking in to their grand lobby in my very on sale suit and feeling extremely out of place. The position offered $1300 for the whole summer, which breaks down to $4.06 an hour if you do a typical eight week summer internship. In case you are not familiar with the cost of living in D.C. or the United States, $4.06 an hour doesn’t get you much. During that interview I decided to politely voice my opinion on how low the pay was and how I thought if the program was really aimed at helping minorities and low income students get ahead, perhaps it should at the very least pay them minimum wage. I politely explained how hard it is to constantly work for below average wage when you have no other means of financial support. I went on to explain how the structure of the clerkship program did not align with its goals to assist low income and minority students gain access to clerkships.
I am not arguing that all internships should pay large sums of money or that there is anything wrong with working two jobs to get good experience. I really do consider those years my character building years. Those experiences instilled in me a great work ethic and taught me the value of money, even more so than my parents had already taught me. However, I think paying someone a fair wage opens the opportunity to a wider pool of candidates and benefits all of society in the end. To my surprise, this partner highly recommended me for the position but I passed on the opportunity. I had to make some money that summer in order to survive the next semester of law school and save for my bar exam fees. Sadly, it was not really a choice.
My unpaid and underpaid internships gave my resume the boost it needed, but they took a toll on my health and sanity. They made me feel like I was fighting to belong in a world of law and politics that weren’t structured to provide me opportunities. I was constantly struggling to participate in networking opportunities that were limited to those who could afford them. I know it is an idealistic thought not supported by history, but I think law and politics should be the least elitist. These are the two areas where you want your hard working people who understand struggle. Only making these opportunities available to those in the upper class destroys the middle class, limits the generation of ideas that have made this country what it is today and has a significant long term impact on the economy.
I don’t regret my internships. That gentleman at the SEC who eventually offered me the position is a great mentor. He is a Harvard law graduate, but I didn’t learn this until over lunch one day -- a year after my internship. He is passionate about family and food and has a great sense of humor that truly puts things into perspective. I went to lunch with the partner at Covington a few weeks after my interview, and when I offered to pay she told me I could pay when I was rich and famous. Then we debated which was better and both determined rich and not famous was best. I will always remember that conversation because it’s such a boost of confidence when someone in that position believes in your future abilities. She is a great person who is always willing to lend an open minded ear and provide advice - even though at the time I was discussing an extremely taboo topic for an interview - money. And my boss on Capitol Hill has become a life-long friend. He flew to my wedding in Belize and my husband and I are going to his in Kentucky this fall. He is probably one of the funniest and nicest guys I know.
I realize that public interest positions will never be able to compete with the private sector; however, they should offer minimum wage. And while I believe that internships should pay, I also believe that at some point everyone should take the pay cut or swallow the low pay and take a public interest job. You will grow more than you will ever imagine. I was very fortunate to have the experiences I had but I think we need to strike a better balance by structuring internship opportunities in a way that makes them more feasible to those who do not have another income source.
