Should unpaid internships be banned across the EU?

Given that over 60% of our audience are under 30 years old, 

many of you will have experience with internships. 
That experience won’t always have been pleasant (or even useful professionally)

In 2013, Eurobarometer released a survey (PDF) of 18-35 year-olds, and found 
that 46% had completed at least one internship. Unpaid internships seem 
to be the norm, with almost six out of ten (59%) respondents not receiving any 
financial compensation. Even among those who were paid, less than half (46%) 
said this was sufficient to cover basic living costs.

Should unpaid internships be banned? Even superheroes are condemning 
unpaid internships, with Captain Europe weighing in recently to argue for quality traineeships:debatingeurope.eu

Not everybody agrees, however. We had a comment sent in from Catherine 
arguing that interns should accept that they are gaining valuable experience for free:

Graduates should be eternally grateful for the benefit of an internship. They have no experience in the real world and, until they know what they are doing, they are often a liability rather than an asset. It is costly to take on an unproductive individual in a financial downturn. It can be the difference between make or break. So, accept the idea for what it is: an opportunity to learn for free

To get a reaction to Catherine’s comment, we spoke to Johanna Nyman, President of the European Youth Forum. How would she respond?

Well, I would disagree with your opinion on this, Catherine. I think that young people have the right to be treated the same way as other people… In today’s society, we see a little bit of a trend where young people are blamed for a lot of problems. Young people are seen as a huge burden, for example, when it comes to unemployment. I don’t support this attitude, and when it comes to internships it’s crucial that you should get remuneration for the work you are doing because working for free should not be an option for anybody, anywhere.

To get another perspective, we also spoke to Tamás Várnai, an expert on youth unemployment at the European Commission, DG Employment, 
Social Affairs and Inclusion. He was slightly more sympathetic to Catherine’s 
argument, but only to a point:

So, what Catherine is arguing is that the company has to invest a lot into the new intern, and this is true. It’s true probably for the first month or so while the trainee or intern is very new to the position and has to learn a lot of things. But, after a while, when the trainee’s productivity increases, then I think that the trainee should be rewarded for his or her work.

A good example of this is the new German minimum wage law, which also applies for trainees. The way the Germans solved the problem is that for traineeships less than three months there is no requirement for pay, but for traineeships longer than three months the minimum wage rules apply. So, their thinking is also following the logic that, after a certain amount of time, the productivity of an intern is already at a higher level and so the trainee should receive some remuneration.

But should the whole system of internships be abolished? We had a comment from Marie, who argued that internships amount to exploitation and abuse of workers:

Lots of companies use interns instead of hiring someone and pay them nothing, or next to nothing. And internships are not seen as a true professional experience, so interns are abused. This system should be replaced by incentives for companies to hire young people (such as tax deductions) instead of taking on an intern for six months.

What would Johanna Nyman, President of the European Youth Forum, say about Marie’s comment?

Well, I absolutely agree with the first part of Marie’s comment. It’s unacceptable for so many companies in Europe today to be using interns as a replacement for real positions in the workplace. Then, of course, the question is how to make sure this practice stops. I think that internships are a very valuable way to get experience about how the labour market works, or what it is like to have a specific job, but it’s important that it is a learning experience and that there is proper remuneration for the work you are doing as an intern.

Finally, we put the same question to Tamás Várnai from the Commission. What would be his reaction?

Yes, the Commission is also aware that very often traineeships are abusive. In many cases, young people are used as a cheap (or even free) labour force. We surveyed Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and asked them about their objectives with internships. Why do they hire trainees? And, actually, 11% were honest enough to say that it’s about cheap labour for them, which I was surprised about. So, this is a real issue.

So, what is the solution? The Commission does advocate incentivising hiring young people under the Youth Guarantee, and such hiring incentives do exist in Europe. Of course, it’s mostly the Member States who have to decide about these things, but we do advocate for it. But, on the other hand, job creation is mostly a task of the economy, so I think it’s economic recovery that would lead to jobs.

Should unpaid internships be banned across the EU? 
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IMAGE CREDITS: CC / Flickr – Joel Gillman
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