It’s Time To Abolish Unpaid Internships

They perpetuate income inequality and serve as financial barriers to upward mobility for lower-income students.

Photo by on

As a college student in the Paleolithic age (late 1980s to early 1990s), I remember how professors and employers touted internships as a good way to gain valuable work experience. I remember being excited at the prospect of learning the ropes at a well- known organization.

How Unpaid Internships Are Classist

However, as early as my sophomore year, I realized that I couldn’t entertain the thought of applying to many internships because they were unpaid. Although a loan taken out by my parents made it possible for me to even set foot in college, they only borrowed enough to cover tuition.

While the college had dorms, I never lived in them because that would have cost us more money. So, I lived at home. I worked several different part-time jobs during my entire college career to pay for books, meals, and entertainment. Going into even more debt to do an unpaid internship didn’t make sense to me or my parents.

And that is the crux of the problem with unpaid internships. While a college education is regarded as an equalizer, unpaid internships shatter that notion. They wind…