[Milton Miteybad]

I'm support the graduate if he *WANTS* to do so... but it should *NEVER* be corporate policy.

It isn't. Not to any measurable degree, anyway.

And if business has reached the point that one cannot even reasonably expect to get a job without it, that *IS* a problem.

For example, the architecture business has been that way pretty much forever. When they first hire on, new architectural graduates often work for very low pay on a provisional basis until they learn enough to be able to contribute to the bottom line. If that's a problem for you, you'll want to avoid that particular field.

For it creates a class of indentured servants, having to work without pay just for the possibility of a job.

Not really. The employee, who is in no way legally bound to stay at an internship, is always free to seek other opportunities if he so desires. He could only be regarded as "indentured" if he was legally compelled to stay in the low-paying internship for a certain length of time. But, he's not, so it isn't.

[gogogodzilla]

For example, the architecture business has been that way pretty much forever. When they first hire on, new architectural graduates often work for very low pay on a provisional basis until they learn enough to be able to contribute to the bottom line. If that's a problem for you, you'll want to avoid that particular field.

No, that's what'd I'd expect. But what makes it appropriate is that the new hires *ARE* getting paid. I've never advocated that interns should be paid equal to that of regular employees. What I argue is that if someone provides work/labor for a company, they must be paid the value of the work. Not be told, as many here think, that their labor is valueless and that the intern should just be grateful for the experience.

Taking that line of reasoning to the extreme would find that, unless you literally are the most experienced person in a field, companies could simply say that they don't have to pay, for the experience alone is compensation.

For everyone is always learning how to get better at their job.