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How the Senate Exploits Unpaid Interns
Barely a third of U.S. senators pay their interns -- and embarrassingly for Democrats, a party focused on workplace welfare, most of them are Republicans.
Liberals should stop making excuses for Sanders here. Across the board. If he wants $15/hr. Min wage. Pay his people $15/hr min wage. Period.
Just like liberals and hating the bush tax cuts. Get rid of the bush tax cuts. All of it. Nope. Liberals still blame bush for his tax cuts. But still kept the tax cuts for themselves.
Yes, it is unique for a general internship to provide any funding. They are experiential in nature, predominantly unpaid, and for a fixed term (i.e., a semester, the summer during academic terms). Typically, if an internship does provide funding, it is funding in the form of a stipend (an untaxed, lump sump, and a 1099 form). In these scenarios, the intern is in essence an independent contractor, and must pay taxes on the stipend (~15% of the total) when they file the following year.
I give you a specific, personal anecdote. When I applied for and received a science internship at a National Laboratory years ago as an undergraduate, I received a competitive $5,000 stipend for the 10-week term between semesters. About 20 students received this internship, I'm sure hundreds if not thousands applied. The stipend was not broken down per hour, nor did I always work a full 40 hours per week, it was less structured in that regard. My payments were lump sum, no taxes deducted (I had to pay taxes the following year, so, deduct about $750 or so to the figure, I do not recall). The stipend for me personally, was a bonus, because the real opportunity was the chance to work with a top research scientist during the summer, and, publish work at the end of the internship, which would help with graduate school prospects.
Later, I interned at Johns Hopkins Hospital, for instance, and there was not a single internship that provided a payment. Hopkins is like that--you're interning for the name. You work there for the name (and receive less pay!), because of the name. Anyone in academia will support this general notion, view a college or graduate school internship page if you'd like to confirm.
The intern versus employee distinction is key, specifically in relation to the laws set forth by the United States Department of Labor. There are tax implications, and legal implications for failing to abide by the FSLA or for misclassification. An intern is *not* in an employment relationship.
The link you provided, from Salon, based its entire article on self-report, anonymous, voluntary, unchecked data from site, GlassDoor. These figures do not originate from the employer directly. Some are broken down per hour, some per stipend, and, in that way, it confuses the analysis. Further, if you visit most of the employers quoted in the original link, go to their sites directly, you will see many, such as NVIDIA or Apple, (which are mainly within the tech field, and incredibly competitive internships!), provide an internship *stipend* whether for the internship itself, or a stipend just for housing or transportation. This is typical. Similar to what my personal internship was like way back when. Rather than breaking down an 'hourly' rate, like you noted, since they are not employees per FSLA, and interning for a fixed term, the stipend term is applied.
So, to go back to your $38 per hour internship, could you please elaborate a little bit more on the term of the internship (amount of months and hours per week), the field, whether you received a W-2 or 1099? These things all play into the discussion, and, I'll state it again, a $38 per hour internship is extremely rare, an outlier--and, a potentially questionable practice by the employer, as, are they attempting to get out of paying the appropriate taxes by classifying what should be an employee, as an intern.
Last edited by MobileVisitor09; 07-25-2015 at 09:52 PM..
Reason: Added numerical breakdown :D
So, to go back to your $38 per hour internship, could you please elaborate a little bit more on the term of the internship (amount of months and hours per week), the field, whether you received a W-2 or 1099? These things all play into the discussion, and, I'll state it again, a $38 per hour internship is extremely rare, an outlier--and, a potentially questionable practice by the employer, as, are they attempting to get out of paying the appropriate taxes by classifying what should be an employee, as an intern.
I can assure you that in my field, that is not an outlier.
Well, you helped clear up some of the misconceptions in this thread. And, you are applying it to your specialized field. I'm not sure what type of work you conducted throughout your internship, but, for my paid example, I conducted specific medical research, ran analyses, attended conferences, published data. This is not your typical summer internship. Many internships involve shadowing a professional, administrative tasks, low-level activity that cannot be construed as a full job and must be a training-based experience (because if its not, then FLSA gets activated).
When you consider Bernie's internship, this is not going to be high-tech research, coding and programming at Facebook, applied science, applied engineering, etc. When my younger brother interned with a politician, (unpaid, and I remember because I helped write his cover letter, lol), he attended events, answered constituent phone calls, edited speeches. Hence, for Bernie to pay any type of stipend for an internship, particularly a political one in nature, is unique.
Back to your internship and to clear up the employment versus internship comparison being made throughout this thread--first, you worked 40 hours per week. There is no requirement for interns to work 40 hours per week, like a typical paid, for-hire employee. I did not work 40 hours per week at my hospital, unpaid internship, nor my science-based one that was paid. There is flexibility.
Second, you worked for a fixed term, the hallmark of an internship. This is usually a semester, or summer term.
Third, you worked within a specialized field, such as engineering. My specialized field, was neuro/medical and as part of a competitive program. The link you provided early, via Salon, provided internship data for some of the top companies in the country, internships and employment opportunities at places like Facebook, Google, Twitter, are highly competitive by nature. Hence, you and I have extremely unique experiences, and an internship at a place like Google, yes, is an outlier kind of experience--especially if we were to visit Idealist, for instance, do a query for internship, and view the typical internship position and its benefits (which are often unpaid, and, many provide academic credit in exchange for experience).
EDIT: Can you link me to a particular internship like you participated in within your field? I'm not familiar with engineering, nor remotely within that type of field / study.
Many internships involve shadowing a professional, administrative tasks, low-level activity that cannot be construed as a full job and must be a training-based experience (because if its not, then FLSA gets activated).
Internships spent doing things like "administrative tasks" are, in my opinion, a complete waste of time. That's probably why they pay so little.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MobileVisitor09
When you consider Bernie's internship, this is not going to be high-tech research, coding and programming at Facebook, applied science, applied engineering, etc.
I think you're missing the point that Bernie supports a minimum wage that pays more that he is willing to pay. When liberals say they want a $15/hr minimum wage, they don't say "minimum wage for everything but internships" or "minimum wage for jobs that are meant to provide a living wage". They want a higher minimum wage, period.
I don't get why liberals complain about how these "greedy capitalists" pay so little, but when one of their own pay next to nothing, they just go out of their way to come up with excuses as to why it's no problem.
Internships spent doing things like "administrative tasks" are, in my opinion, a complete waste of time. That's probably why they pay so little.
I think you're missing the point that Bernie supports a minimum wage that pays more that he is willing to pay. When liberals say they want a $15/hr minimum wage, they don't say "minimum wage for everything but internships" or "minimum wage for jobs that are meant to provide a living wage". They want a higher minimum wage, period.
I don't get why liberals complain about how these "greedy capitalists" pay so little, but when one of their own pay next to nothing, they just go out of their way to come up with excuses as to why it's no problem.
I think paying an intern $12 an hour is pretty damn good. We are talking about college kids not someone who is trying to make a living by this job. There's a big difference between interns and permanent workers.
They probably still need to have some skills worth being paid for, so if your students are typical liberal arts students they aren't likely to find a paid internship. But there are many companies that pay interns very well. Are your students the best and brightest?
paid internships typically offer between $15 and $19 an hour, or $2,400 to $3,100 a month, on average. But companies like Twitter, ExxonMobil, and BlackRock pay double that — and Palantir Technologies, a Palo Alto-based software firm, pays nearly triple the monthly average, making it the highest-paying company for interns in 2014.
The underlying goal of an internship, is to provide a training and educational experience. This experience can provide insight into whether an undergraduate is fit for the field, provides an out of the classroom experience where they can apply what they have learned in the classroom, and, further, utilize the collective experience for future professional endeavors.
The majority of internships are unpaid; some provide stipends; some allow for academic credit.
The link you provided, is the same content the other poster referenced--it's a listing of majority tech firms, some of the most famous tech companies in the world. Those companies (internships and employment positions) are incredibly unique. These tech internships are also demanding honed, particular skills, and, are not really a helpful comparison point--many companies like Facebook use these internships as a springboard for later employment within the firm. That's what the Bloomberg article highlights, which was the impetus for the Salon article, where a young kid skipped college to start working with Facebook directly...
A political internship, the entire push for this thread, with a politician is rarely paid, because of the tasks involved, and because like the medical field, most undergraduates use the experience for graduate school, it's less about the stipend. So, Bernie is at the end of the spectrum actually providing a high profile internship, and a stipend to boot, is pretty amazing, and, with that, an equivalent of $12 an hour.
To compare this all to the minimum wage, and/or, a position of employment, is comparing apples to oranges. In the fruit family of course, but, important differences that cannot be overlooked.
I think paying an intern $12 an hour is pretty damn good. We are talking about college kids not someone who is trying to make a living by this job. There's a big difference between interns and permanent workers.
What's the big difference?
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