As businesses hire unpaid interns in breach of minimum wage regulations, we chart the story of interns
Internships are now a rite of passage for anyone hoping to secure a job after graduation.
If you’re lucky, you might get valuable experience within your chosen career. Or you might spend two weeks making cups of tea and photocopying.
There are 100,000 unpaid interns in the UK, according to data from think-tank IPPR, but the practice could be in breach of employment law.
Interns that perform valuable tasks are considered workers, not volunteers, according to government guidelines, and so they are subject to national minimum wage.
According to a YouGov survey of 682 businesses on behalf of Intern Aware, 69 per cent of companies find interns useful for their business.
But 26 per cent of the companies surveyed pay their interns nothing, or less than the national minimum wage.
And 82 per cent of companies using unpaid interns admitted that they were doing work that was useful to the business — which would classify as a breach of employment law.
Of the companies surveyed, education businesses were the most likely to use unpaid interns, with 43 per cent of internships not receiving a salary for their work. Although more IT & telecoms interns were paid, with 15 per cent receiving no money at all, a further 26 per cent were paid less than minimum wage.
Construction companies were best for interns, with 57 per cent paying minimum wage or above, while hospitality and leisure firms were the most generous, with 45 per cent paying more than minimum wage.
Ben Lyons, co-director of Intern Aware, says that unpaid internships can limit opportunities for less affluent graduates, who can’t afford to support themselves without a salary.
And hopes of unpaid internships leading to a job could be unfounded—companies that pay interns are more likely to see internships as a valuable recruitment strategy than businesses using unpaid interns.
Some 48 per cent of employers who paid interns regarded internships as an important means of recruitment.
Companies that pay interns:
Compared to 32 per cent of businesses who did not pay their interns.
Companies that don't pay interns:
Most graduates expect to experience an underappreciated slog at the beginning of their careers. But don’t let employers confuse an enthusiastic graduate with a chance to stop paying wages.
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