So excited to announce this new series coming to The Miller Affect every Tuesday!
Rain or shine, you will see a ‘Tuesday Talks’ here on the blog!!
To easily find it, go to themilleraffect.com/blogging-tips, or look for ‘Blogging Tips’ under the ‘Lifestyle’ on my blog menu!
I would save themilleraffect.com/category/blogging-tips to your bookmarks tab so you can just click on it every Tuesday!
Warning: these posts aren’t going to be in any kind of order. I am not going to start at ‘How To Start at Blog’ or anything like that. I will mostly be ranting, covering recent events, or answering questions you have asked me via email!
If you have something you would love to see on here, please leave a comment below and I will add it to the list! I am hoping that I never run out of things to say on here!
Let’s get started with today’s Tuesday Tips and talk about why you should pay your interns.
*pin this image and save it under ‘Blog Tips’ so that you can keep all of these together
Blogging Tip #1: Pay Your Interns
Hiring unpaid interns in the United States is pretty much illegal now.
Even if it wasn’t, paying your employees (whether they are interns are not) definitely outweighs the cost.
Why should you pay your interns?
- Payment garnishes loyalty. You may think your intern is loyal to you, but there is really nothing keeping them there.
- Paying your intern will cause them to work harder. I know you probably may think this isn’t true, butttt it is. If they think there is a way they can move up in the company, they will work harder. If they thing there is a way they can get a raise, they will work harder.
- Paying your intern is the right thing to do. It just makes me to mad when I hear people have unpaid interns (even though the interns ‘want’ to be working for them.) These people ARE WORKING FOR YOU. They are doing something to help you. Why wouldn’t you pay them?
- Not paying your intern could lead in a legal battle that will ultimately cost you so much more. There are already a few cases of unpaid internships that have gone to court where the intern wins. Here is a list of criteria that determines whether your unpaid internship is legal or not:
*The Washington Post
Do you see #4? Due to this alone, there is no way that your internship could be legal in the United States.
Of course many people are disputing this and there are many mixed opinions about this. We, in Dallas, are no longer to hire interns from SMU campus without paying them. Colleges everywhere are starting to crack down on this. They want their students to be able to find internships, but they are also demanding fair payment for all. And they should!
Whether you believe it is legal or not, paying your intern is the moral thing to do. How much is minimum wage in your state? What is $8 an hour, when they are doing so much to benefit you? I promise that you will see the worth if you start paying them.
They will ultimately work harder, be more loyal, show up when they are supposed to, etc.
If you are busy enough to need an intern, you are doing well enough to pay one.
I know their are mixed opinions about this, so feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts on why you should pay your interns!
xoxo Amanda
Comments
Great article! I literally just got an internship last week. I am required to get an 8 hour a week internship my last semester of college in order to graduate, and we were allowed to pick between paid or unpaid. I ultimately picked unpaid because I already have a job and I know that I will benefit more from the internship than the company I am interning for. I will be working directly under therapists that I already know are excellent teachers. It is in the medical field, so legally all I can do is observation, record keeping and such. I know that if I had an internship where I was doing a lot of actual work, such as working for a blogger I would have chosen a paid internship though.
Hi! I so agree with this!!! I did an unpaid internship for 6 months and left feeling like I didn’t not gain enough experience whatsoever compared to the amount of time and effort I put into helping my boss and the company. I felt so unappreciated and discouraged by the lack of thankfulness during my internship, especially since I wasn’t getting paid so it made it more tricky. I am now entering into another possible weekend/part-time internship for the summer with a blogger, and I’m curious what your thoughts are on if I should make sure that it’s a paid internship even though I’m only able to give hours on weekends and weeknights? I have never intern for a blogger before so I’m curious what you think I should do!!
Amanda,
I think this is such valuable insight that you have offered – thank you.
I am about to finish my Masters in I/O Psych and what I have studied and personally think supports this practice. Offering someone some sort of pay – stipend, minimum wage, etc. shows you at the very least value the intern’s time and can enhance his/her experience and yours.
So glad you offered this up :]
I totally agree with this! There are cases though where they legally don’t or can’t pay them; for instance, I went to a University for Medical Assisting, and in order to graduate I had to specifically do an unpaid internship (externship). Employers were not allowed to pay us since in the medical field we are still learning and are practicing under the doctor’s license/guidance. Luckily, my and many of my classmate’s employers had us work part-time for pay doing other things like billing, phone calls, etc. As far as blogging and corporations go though I definitely feel like it’s a must!
As an employment lawyer, I wholeheartedly agree! Most internships do not meet all of the Department of Labor’s criteria, and it can be difficult to structure an internship so that it can truly be unpaid. Therefore, it’s much less risky (especially for a small business owner) to just pay interns minimum wage — safer for you, and better for them!
I went to Florida State for college and majored in Fashion Merchandising. For our program we had to complete an internship during the last semester of college in order to graduate. I so wish my internship would have been paid but unfortunately 5 years ago that was just not the case. Many of my classmates were paid, but many were not. It honestly depended on the size of the company (big name stores like Target, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Stein Mart) all paid, but those who choose to go off the beaten path of mainstream retail were unfortunately not paid. I worked for a small magazine in Tallahassee and could have desperately used the money. Instead they had me drive all around town (at least $50-$100 worth of gas) to drop off the magazines. They only compensated .10 per gallon. I was fortunate to have help from my parents but as a girl who took an unpaid internship, it would have been so wonderful to get some compensation, even it was minimum wage. If I ever hire an intern, I would 100% pay them.
Katie | http://www.katieskronicles.org
Katie, Just imagine if all companies were FORCED to pay their interns? Then everyone would get paid and have the experience! I know many states are working towards this so I am just trying to help push this by asking everyone to please pay their interns haha! Thanks so much for commenting babe! Have a great rest of your week! xox Amanda
100% agree. I’m currently in law school and work as a paid legal intern for a Fortune 500. When I was in college, however, I worked “for free” at a Condé Nast subsidiary. Fast forward three years later, and I get a letter in the mail asking to join a class action against the company for unlawful, unpaid internships. Even though I “learned” a lot, I should have gotten monetary compensation instead of being paid with the experience. Interns are young and don’t know how to say “no” when they’ve reached capacity. It’s sad to see them get taken advantage of.
LOVE hearing it from this point of you (a legal one)!! Thanks so much for commenting Lauren! xox Amanda
I think this is a great post. My son is getting his 1st internship at my job and I love that they are paying him a great rate ($10-he doesnt have any needs to pay on his own) and he is getting to experience Corporate America. He is going to be a senior in HS, but when he goes to college he can come back every summer and they will pay him more.
Wow sounds like such an amazing internship for your son! And that will teach him how to work for his money, how to get and cash his checks and keep up with his taxes! Love it!
xox Amanda
I absolutely love this post and 100% agree with everything you mentioned! I am graduating college this week and in order to get my diploma, I have to work as an unpaid intern for 40 hours a week for two months this summer. I think this requirement is very excessive for an unpaid internship. On top of not getting paid for this internship, I have to pay my university $4,000 to enroll in this internship since it is technically a class. As an almost college grad, I will need to start paying my bills, but I won’t have time to get another job since I’ll be working so many hours for free. Thank you for sharing this, I think this is a great read for employers and college students!
XOXO,
Jonica
https://sandytoesandsaltyhair.com/
Jonica, so sorry about that! I hope you got some really great experience that you can hopefully take to your next employer and make a little higher salary than someone without that experience!
xoxo Amanda
I had to do the same thing in college when I went to FSU but we could find ones that were paid if we chose to. That is crazy but the positive outlook is that you will gain valuable experience and it could possibly land a future job. It happened to many of my classmates but after they interned, the company hired them on right away and they never had to deal with the after college job search.
Love this!
Great post, and as a Mom to a college kid, they need great work experience, and good professional examples and paying them does build loyalty, teaches the value of working for a paycheck, and is the right thing to do as these Kids will be the college educated individuals who will be our future.
Completely agree! Thanks so much for your comment!!
Xox Amanda
Amanda,
Great post! I can tell you as a Mom of college students, there are still internships that do not pay because the internship offers college credit. There is nothing illegal about this. I believe that is covered in #6 of the article you cited.
I’m not saying that is how I would retain an intern but just wanted to put it out there.
Also, I don’t know anyone who would work for $8/hour.
xoxo- Tanya 🙂
http://www.TanyaFoster.com
Unfortunately, in order to have an unpaid intern you have to complete all 6 objectives, not just one. #4 alone basically says if they are doing something to help you, then you have to pay them. It doesn’t matter if numbers 1,2,3,5, and 6 are met. They all have to be :/.
I definitely worked minimum wage out of college and that was $7 and hour and I was a sports marketing intern for the Dallas Mavericks. I couldn’t take an unpaid internship because my parents said get a job!
Basically it comes down to this, many kids in collage cannot afford to take an unpaid internship (school credit or not) because they are paying their way through college and working jobs while they are in school. I just think it should be a fair chance for all students!
And I put something out that I was looking for a paid internship to work minimum wage and received at least 100 applications! Just the ‘being paid’ part to them is huge, no matter what you are actually paying!
Thanks for reading Tanya :)!! Coffee soon!
Xox Amanda
Lots of people work minimum wage. It’s $7.25 where I live. And if it’s part-time and for college credit, I don’t see why anyone would have issues.
Interesting read! Do you have an intern? You did not mention if you have one, and how your interns position has evolved.