Credit is not compensation. Employers espouse them as a veil to hide exploitation.  More than 90% of students¹⁷ must pay tuition for the credits they earn and are thereby double-penalized imposing greater economic burden.

It has been proven that an individual supervisor can GAIN more than 200 full work days of productivity/year¹⁸ by trading their time to manage and mentor multiple interns instead of completing such work independently.  This productivity also frees up salaried workers to be more productive themselves in gaining time to achieve more complex tasks. As such, the training provision and time investments that many claim as compensation is significantly offset by these productivity gains.

Proposed Reforms

VI. We call on Higher Education Institutions

a) To revoke archaic rules that credit-bearing internships may not be paid. The last thing the schools should be doing is telling employers not to pay.

b) Refuse to endorse unpaid internships (i.e., postings on listservs), unless for a non-profit, civic engagement-related opportunities [in concert with an achievable phase-out].

c) We call on ALL for-profit businesses and government to cease credit-for-compensation practices and related minimum wage law violations by hiding behind “but they got college credit” justifications.