“Unpaid internships often include work for which others are paid, “
Wrong. Including work for which others are paid in the scope of “internships” in the state of New York is illegal. It violates labor law. They. Broke. The. Law.
Why are you talking about “creating labor law” instead of acknowledging EXISTING LABOR LAW ON THE BOOKS? That’s why her lawsuit isn’t “frivolous.” The law is on her side.
And your dismissing her by saying she should “learn a useful lesson?” What lesson? Shut up and take it when employers violate labor law? She didn’t break the law — CBS did. How about teaching Letterman/CBS a useful lesson by making them PAY HER WAGES FOR THE WORK SHE DID, AND THEN FINING THEM to discourage these unscrupulous business practices?
The actual law doesn’t seem to say that http://statutes.laws.com/new-york/lab/article-19 There is no clear mention of internships.
An interpretation crafted by bureaucrats created those rules for internships, and I disagree with that interpretation. http://www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/workprot/minwage.shtm http://www.newyorkemploymentattorneyblog.com/2010/05/department_of_labor_issues_gui.html It’s not what the law calls for, and NY legislators could pass such a law if they wish. They chose not to.
It’s harmful to create additional impediments to internships as a path to professional education. It’s even more harmful to create law through bureaucratic fiat. The law should say what it means and mean what it says. I used to hire what I called “interns” but for pay (actually fairly generous pay - $20 or more an hour for college students who met my standards), but that was my choice, and I got the best, based on resume, grades, and interviews. Those who didn’t meet my standards were often not worth paying, not even minimum wage. Would you deny them a chance to learn on the job what they hadn’t learned in the classroom? My interns did real work, just like unpaid interns, but because they were interns, all of their work was checked even more thoroughly than we checked the work of professionals.
The anti-intern interpretation that forces employers to pay interns or not accept them at all is bad policy that will hurt interns, and bad law because it is not as far as I can tell in the letter of the law. Note: I avoided NY because of their laws, so I may have missed something, but I think my point is still valid.