Businesses looking to save some money and complete a project often turn to interns. In today’s economy recruiters and hiring managers may also get a call from a job seeker asking to “intern for free” to “learn about your business”.
Intern however is not a synonym for free labor. In fact the Department of Labor notes that internships will most often be viewed as employment (and therefore subject to the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA), unless a test is met. The department will look at the following 6 criteria when applying the test:
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
If all of the factors listed above are met, an employment relationship does not exist under the FLSA, and the act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions do not apply to the intern. This exclusion from the definition of employment is necessarily quite narrow because the FLSA’s definition of “employ” is very broad, the department says.
So think about internships as great PR and community relations; offering new graduates, young people and those exploring a career change the opportunity to learn about your business and business in general, but unless you can truly meet all six factors don’t consider them free labor.
Join the conversation: Do you use interns in your company and do you normally pay them?
Happy 20th Birthday to the ADA (Americans with Disability Act)! Since becoming the law on July 26, 1990 the ADA has protected the rights of the disabled including access to public places, enforcing non-discrimination and requiring “reasonable accomodation” in the workplace. Further protections for the disabled were provided by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA). This law made clear that courts needed to focus their attention on the illegal discrimination – not on whether the victim was disabled within the meaning of the law. So how effective has the ADA been in the past 20 years? Unfortunately discrimination against those with disabilities continues in the workplace. Consider the following statistics from the EEOC website:
