Ahhh, unpaid internships — a rite of passage. A painstaking but hopefully valuable way to spend a summer that can lead to the shining “World Of Employment.” Well, at least for some. While many undergrads begrudgingly view the unpaid internship as a necessary evil on the road to adulthood, others don’t have that luxury. 

Although summer presents students with the opportunity to take a break from classes and the stress of the school year, it also offers the chance to work and expand learning beyond academics. Sounds pretty nice, right? The problem is, many of the summer internships made available to students come without pay. 

This seems to have been the summer of the unpaid intern. From reports of a Bank of America intern being found dead to two former “Black Swan” interns winning a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for minimum wage violations, under-compensated young people have been the stars of many a recent trend piece. 

Also compelling is the grassroots lobby group Fair Pay Campaign’s recent attempt to bring to light the issue of unpaid interns in Washington, D.C. and the White House. The group is set to roll out more objectives in the coming weeks, and the conversation it’s sparking about wages should aid in the dialogue about compensation in public and private sector internships alike.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, for-profit private sector companies employing interns must adhere to a set of six principles when determining if an intern can be unpaid. These stipulations include that the experience must exist for the benefit of the intern, that the intern does not displace a paid employee and that the internship is educational in nature. 

Realistically, I’d be hard-pressed to believe that all private businesses follow each of the six of these strict guidelines. But more significant than those putting in time with no compensation is the glass ceiling unpaid internships create. Looking at a summer without making any money is simply not realistic for many students, and this only perpetuates the cards being stacked against those who come from less wealthy backgrounds. 

Not only are employers cutting off qualified individuals, universities are making matters worse. Many businesses that don’t offer paid internships require that the student gain academic credit for their experience. Although this sounds nice – at least there’s something to be gained – it becomes problematic when those credits come at a financial cost to students. 

According to a 2011 survey of 8,939 interns conducted by Intern Bridge, 47 percent of them received college credit for their experience. Of those, 83 percent were not monetarily compensated for their work, and 56 percent of those receiving credit were required to pay tuition for the credits received. 

This only worsens the glass ceiling created by employers, as hopeful interns face not only breaking even on money for the summer but actually losing money. Not only is the student signing up for an experience that may or may not be beneficial to their future careers, they’re doing so at a substantial cost.

So, are unpaid internships worth it? I’m not saying they’re all necessarily awful. They can and do provide helpful experience in real, grown-up people places of work as well as lead to future employment via connections and added lines to a resume. But as the practice of unpaid internships starts to effectively block so many people from gaining professional experience, more needs to be done.  

Internships need to be more accessible to students from all walks of life and our government, employers and universities need to have policies in place that help students to gain them more than deter them from doing so.

Ultimately, some young people need to make money and, believe it or not, us #millennials aren’t all 100 percent dependent on our parents. College kids are people with aspirations and career goals too. Where unpaid internships are a doorway for some, they’re a barrier to too many others.

Katie Caron ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism with a certificate in environmental studies.