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Unpaid Internship

Well, the firm in question would be violating the Fair Labor Standards Act— in civil court, you can be sued for back pay where as criminal court caries a up to a $10,000 fine per violation. A second violation comes with a prison sentence.

However, professional employees are exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay if they are paid at least $455 a week.

If we refer to TITLE 29 CHAPTER 8 § 207, this law basically says that you're not able to make someone work more than 40 hours a week unless you pay them overtime pay of time-and-a-half. So, I'm pretty sure the FSLA exempts you from following this if you meet the minimum pay requirement.

So, a minimum wage interns regular weekly check makes them applicable for overtime pay. That means if they continually work 60-80 hour weeks, they're actually going to cost you more and increase your liabilities— it's a $50,000 fine plus damages for an employer causing injury to an employee— than giving an intern a weekly salary of $455.01. A 60-hour-a-week minimum-wage intern will run you about ($290 + $217.5) $507.

Jun 23, 11 12:55 am  · 
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Hence

I love politicts,  Polititicians get to get on their soap box and say they did something to protect the 40 hr week and the american dream,  then they write in little loop holes for their coorporate buddies to use to still work their employees overtime and not pay them.

 

Jun 23, 11 8:35 am  · 
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ThinkRevit

Unpaid internships are illegal so I shall report you immediately.

Aug 14, 11 8:17 pm  · 
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I would tell this firm that they are violating Federal law and that I am going to report them to the Federal Authorities. Unpaid internships is ILLEGAL ! ! ! !

Internships ARE employment jobs. EVERYONE HERE - BEWARE. Those jobs are SCAMS in order to get you to work for free.

My conditions would be, FREE RENT, FOOD, SEX WITH THE PRETTY LADIES, ETC.  and don't forget my entire student loans all paid off within the year.  LOL ! ! ! !

Seriously, I wouldn't work for such jobs because such employers are criminals as far as I am concern. Honestly, I believe it should be completely and utterly outlawed EXCEPT if it is conjunction to an academic "Work Experience" program or is for a NON-PROFIT ENTIT. In regards to FOR-PROFIT entities, it should be limited only if it is in connection with colleges & universities for academic credit with a PRESCRIBED number of hours per credit.

In addition for both For-Profit entities and all types of Non-profit / Not-for-profit entities, ALL anti-"moonlighting" (during and after internship period) or any form of Non-competition Agreement (except for agreements for duration of internship) shall be NULL & VOID.

We need to effectively outlaw unpaid internships because it always benefits for-profit employers. All employments benefits the employed to some form or fashion and that virtually all employments a person can learn things in the work place that can be learned in a classroom.

I think these things must be very strictly written for protection of people from being exploited by employers and need to end these practices except the few instances where there is some legal ethics too!

 

Aug 15, 11 2:00 pm  · 
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It's not an internship, it's an opportunity to volunteer for professional experience.

Problem solved.

 

Aug 15, 11 3:00 pm  · 
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Volunteering clause should not apply to employees of a For-profit entity. For profit-entity shall not be permitted to hire people as volunteers. Volunteering should not be a condition of employment.

Employees shall be paid for any required time that employee has to do something for that For-profit entity regardless of whether the company is charging money or not.

 

Aug 15, 11 4:01 pm  · 
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Bench

http://archinect.com/jobs/entry/37923005/design-intern

 

Another one... These keep coming up unfortunately.

Feb 17, 12 9:31 pm  · 
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Weeeelllll…..Terreform *is* a "non-profit", and the DoL standards seem to apply to for-profit entities only.  That said, I'm pretty sure part of the reason Terreform exists is to make sure its founders continue to exist (i.e., get paid), and the fact they only want people with a degree is a bit suspect.  Of course, Joachim has been on Colbert, so there's a little star power potential there, eh?  And speaking of fancy graphics lovers, ooooh my.  It would be a fun place to be a graphics slave, for sure, but would be more fun if one could also pay rent and eat.

Feb 17, 12 10:29 pm  · 
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x-jla

paying rent and eating is important, so the only people who could apply for such a position are trustfund babies.  Unpaid work is a form of class discrimination. 

Feb 18, 12 3:26 am  · 
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MixmasterFestus

Good lord.  It's a bad enough sign for business acumen when people expect professional-quality work for low amounts of money, but...seriously, not even paying minimum wage?

So, minimum wage for a 40-hour week at $7.25/hour is $290/week.  Tack on things like unemployment insurance, worker's comp, and Social Security and maybe it goes up to $335/week.  If you live in a place with a high minimum wage ($10.25/hr), this maybe goes up to $470/week.

I'm assuming your average workstation costs $2000, with $6000 for software license fees (assuming you're only running a legit copy of Revit or maybe AutoCAD).  At this rate, the employee will have to work for almost six months (~24 weeks) in order to even cost as much as the workstation.  This goes down a few months to 18 weeks in the high minimum-wage state, but that still seems like a long time.

This doesn't even account for the other things that you have to pay for in order to keep someone around for no money (the space, subscription fees, coffee, whatever).

If you're spending that much money to even keep someone around for free, why not go the extra mile and pay them at least minimum wage, particularly if they are productive?  It keeps the fuzz away, the intern happy (assuming it's not a full-time pre-licensure job), and you get to brag to all your firm-owning friends who don't pay minimum wage about how much better you are than them.

Feb 18, 12 7:53 am  · 
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Bench

Donna, thats precisely my issue. While I understand they are a non-profit (whatever that means...), the problem is that they require the individual to have a degree. If the legal hinge that these unpaid internships all balance on is the claim that they are supplementing office experience for their education, how can they ask for someone to already have a degree? Wouldn't the criteria be that they have to be currently enrolled in a program?

I agree that working at Terreform would be pretty rad, but how is that any different from working for any big starchitect for free, just to get a letter of recommendation with the assumption that name-power alone is worth it?

Feb 18, 12 11:13 am  · 
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goldenoldie

I agree...this is out of control class discrimination.

Soon these firms will  require employees pay for an opportunity...it worked for FLW

Feb 18, 12 11:33 am  · 
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x-jla

The greatest hipocracy is that Joachim was down at occupy.  "the poor keep getting poorer booooooo!!!, by the way any one want a unpaid job, we have cool desks?

Feb 18, 12 1:29 pm  · 
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chosunone

I learned something regarding these kind of job posts.

The reason such posts are demanding is because the employer is hoping to attract foreign employers or students because they know that these students need to extend their working Visa and they can only do that by getting a job.  Shame on the employers for their unethical behavior.  I can list firms that does that but that will be unethical.

 

Feb 18, 12 2:02 pm  · 
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Brian Spring

Meybe someday archleaks.com will provide these kind of experiences in one place.

Feb 19, 12 8:40 am  · 
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w. architect

I love it when people use the term Illegal! 

I prefer, to simply state that my interns work without proper papers!  They are good people who are just trying to live the American Dream, and because I do not pay does not make them bad!

Just the other day, one of my interns rebuilt my fence and detailed the company car!

Along with FLW, we are building character for our young kids...and it is not illegal!

May 28, 12 10:33 pm  · 
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