“Unpaid internships are a scam” has become a rallying cry among students and recent graduates navigating the job market, and for good reason. These internships are, in reality, built on an exploitative foundation that benefits companies at the expense of young student workers. 

They are inherently flawed and perpetuate economic inequality by shutting out those who can’t afford to work for free.

The myth surrounding unpaid internships is cliche: that they optimize your resume, open doors and provide invaluable “real-world experience.” This story is a carefully constructed excuse that enables companies to profit from free labor while disguising it as an opportunity for students. 

In many cases, interns are asked to do the work of paid employees without any of the compensation. This system is less about learning and more about enabling companies to pad their bottom lines for free.

America’s obsession with maximizing profits at every level, even when it comes to the labor of inexperienced students, is cruel. It sends a clear message: Your time, your effort and your survival are secondary to our bottom line. 

Interns, regardless of their contributions, deserve to be paid. Compensation should not be a privilege reserved for those who already have the experience or financial stability to work for free — it should be the baseline.

This issue disproportionately impacts students from lower-income backgrounds. While wealthier students may be able to afford working unpaid for a summer, those from working-class families, like myself, cannot. Believe it or not, Whitman students face real-life financial hurdles like rent, transportation, food and tuition!

For many, taking an unpaid internship means sacrificing a summer job that would have helped them pay for school or support their families. The result is the illusion of choice.

The Whitman Internship Grant (WIG) at Whitman College is one of the few institutional efforts aimed at leveling the playing field. The grant is supposed to help students who’ve secured unpaid internships receive funding to cover housing, travel and living expenses.

When asked about the barriers students face, representatives from the WIG program noted the financial strain unpaid internships place on students.

“Some students may face difficulty paying for housing and living expenses, as well as relocation and travel costs. Time spent in unpaid internships may also reduce their ability to take on a paid position.” 

These are not abstract inconveniences — they are direct threats to a student’s ability to succeed, graduate and launch a career.

Programs like WIG are essential stopgaps in a broken system, but they shouldn’t have to exist. The fact that colleges and donors are stepping in to help students survive unpaid labor should make it clear that something is fundamentally wrong.

The legal system, meanwhile, has done little to help. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which governs working conditions in the U.S., explicitly allows companies to classify interns as “non-employees” under certain conditions which enables them to avoid paying them. This loophole not only protects companies that exploit free labor — it actively incentivizes the practice.

Experience should not come at the cost of financial security or equitable access. And while WIG staff acknowledge that unpaid internships can offer opportunities to “test out” careers and build skills, this should not come at the price of excluding less-privileged students. 

If unpaid internships are the only option, then large numbers of students are locked out of those opportunities altogether.

If the goal is to prepare students for the workforce, then that preparation must include paying them for their time and labor. Anything less is exploitation, plain and simple.

Unpaid internships should not be legal. They reinforce privilege, exploit youthful optimism and support a corporate culture that believes people should be grateful just to be in the room. 

Until the laws change, universities, donors and communities will need to fill the gaps. But the real solution is clear: If an internship is valuable enough to exist, it’s valuable enough to be paid.