Internships

Kamenetz (2006) and Halperin (2010) take opposing views of the value of unpaid internships. Both write about the issue, Kamenetz arguing that unpaid internships distort labor markets and do not meet the needs of interns, while Halperin argues that even though paid internships are better, there are benefits to the student of unpaid internships. This article will outline the different issues involved in the unpaid internship question, and the perspectives that each of these different authors has to argue. At the conclusion of the essay will be a determination of which author made the better case.

One of the issues that both authors raised was that of the value that the intern was getting. In particular, since there was no pay, the internship must provide value to the student in terms of the knowledge transferred to the student, the training the student receives and the contacts that the student...
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