Opinion | Unpaid interns are treated unfairly

Olivia Harden
Opinions Editor

When I took an unpaid internship this summer, I didn’t realize how much it was going to cost me.

It’s clear that the benefits that can come from internships are valuable. As a student, I have access to real companies in my field, and the opportunity to become a part of their process. I don’t mean to disregard that. However, student interns are already restricted by the amount of time they have available to work and help support themselves. When a student signs up for an unpaid internship, some of that time is not being compensated for work that is equally valuable. Internships are mutually beneficial to both the student intern and the company and should be treated as such with monetary compensation.

When I first found out I had been selected to be an intern for the radio station Power 106, I was ecstatic. The radio giant has been a staple in hip-hop culture for decades. I was excited to be exposed to radio broadcast and to see what it was like to put out content daily. Without hesitation, I accepted their offer.

I learned a lot during the several weeks I interned there, but keeping up with the internship became draining both financially and mentally. Summer internship registration is $750 a credit, with each credit being 40 hours of work, according to the Chapman website. This is costly for college students like myself, who rely heavily on scholarships and grants throughout the school year. Although I was lucky enough to have my own source of transportation, my car was definitely not equipped for the regular trips between Orange and Los Angeles, and gas was expensive. It was difficult because I was enjoying the work I was doing, but I felt unable to afford it.

The benefits of paid internships outweigh the unpaid by far. Paid interns are more likely to be doing more professional tasks, and these internships lead to hiring 60 percent of the time after the internship is complete, according to The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). This dynamic makes unpaid internships even less of a viable option for students because the material included is less likely to be valuable. The idea that unpaid internships pay off with a job offer is mostly a myth. NACE reports that only 36 percent of people with unpaid internships receive offers. But the quest to land the perfect internship on your resume is already extremely competitive, making paid internships even more difficult to grab.

Paying interns should be seen as a necessity to offset costs from the university in order to register the course and any other expenses. The work that interns complete should not be considered less valuable to a company just because it was completed by a student.