Unpaid internships face new scrutiny as barriers to careers

The value of an internship is unmistakable. It teaches marketable skills, it builds professional networks, and it helps students test-drive careers.

But the benefits are not available to all: Close to half of all internships are unpaid, putting them out of reach for students who need wages to keep up with their bills, even if the work has nothing to do with their intended careers.

Unpaid internships are facing new scrutiny from colleges, state lawmakers—and even the White House, which announced its interns this fall will be paid for the first time to help remove “barriers to equal opportunity” for low-income students.

And students are leading the effort—saying they can’t afford to meet internship requirements, and shouldn’t be expected to work unpaid to make it in a given field.

Denice Brambila, 26, last spring completed an unpaid internship that was required by her social work master’s program at San Diego State University.

To support herself, she worked 12 hours a week at a paid job at an elementary school office. That was on top of the 16 hours a week she spent at her internship, all while trying to keep up with her studies.

“It was pretty hard, especially on those days when I felt really drained and stressed out,” Brambila said.

The people who can take unpaid internships have financial safety nets, and that means they tend to benefit students who are wealthier and white, perpetuating wealth gaps. Three out of four unpaid interns in 2020-21 were white, according to a study by the

National Association of Colleges and Employers.

“Let’s just face it, it’s very difficult to take an unpaid internship, unpaid work experience, when you’re from a lower-income background. That’s why we’re pushing for more paid internships, less reliance on unpaid internships, and in the hopes that it helps diversify the workforce and these industries,” said Joshua Kahn, associate director of research and public policy at NACE.

Unpaid internships can be found across industries. More than two-thirds of internships in state governments and at nonprofit organizations were unpaid, according to the 2021 study by NACE. At universities, professional programs in fields like social work, teaching, and journalism are among those that commonly require field work that is often unpaid.

In some fields unpaid internships are likened to apprenticeships because they are considered essential training for careers.

“We really don’t believe students can learn how to work with people, unless they have some practice working with people,” said Darla Spence Coffey, president and CEO of the Council on Social Work Education, the accrediting body for social work programs.

The council calls for undergraduates to spend 400 hours on internships, and 900 hours for master’s students. The goal, Coffey said, is for students to “learn how to toggle back and forth between what the theory says and how to apply it.”

But many of the underfunded nonprofits and clinics where students work cannot afford to pay them. “Students would love for the accrediting body to say you must pay your students, but that is something we just can’t do,” Coffey said.