A few weeks back I ran into this other article from the New York Times announcing a Manhattan Federal District Court’s decision with important implications for all university students and other prospective interns: “Judge Rules That Movie Studio Should Have Been Paying Interns.” The ruling was the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by two interns who demanded to be paid by Fox Searchlight Pictures for their work in the movie “Black Swan”. In his decision, Judge William H. Pauly III “noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work.” This has very important implications at many levels. On the one hand, it recognizes what should be clear by the standards of the law as summarized by this fact sheet of the US Department of Labor. According to it, in order for an unpaid internship to be legal, it must fulfill the following six criteria:

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; and

6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

This should come as great news for students who don’t have the resources to spend months working for free, at a time when many employers are offering this kind of unpaid internship. On the other hand, as the article indicates, this decision – which simply enforces the law – might stop many employers from offering internship programs. This might be a problem when Caroline Gould from Career Services told us that many prospective employers expect applicants to have done two or three internships before they even consider offering a job.

ProPublica also wrote a piece about the internship decision. They are doing their own investigation on the matter and are looking for students who have participated in internships or who feel they have “been excluded/impacted from an unpaid internship.”

Do you have any personal experience you would like to share with us or with ProPublica? Do you have any other thoughts about this decision?

Remember that if you are interested in obtaining an internship UMass Career Services has a whole page dedicated to Internships and Co-ops.