Darren Boon / Reporting Head
A win-win situation in this worsening economic climate: companies reduce labour costs by hiring unsalaried interns while these intern hopefuls seeking industry experience learn the trade and may actually get their big break.
MAX (not his real name), a tertiary student in his early twenties, has been on an unpaid industrial attachment over the last few weeks.
But he does not have a choice, as the deadline to apply for the industrial internship had been looming. He works between 8 to 10 hours daily for a small firm in the creative industry.
(Photo: Are interns exploited at the office? Courtesy of Bryan Fenstermacher.)
“I actually requested for [reimbursement of] expenses but was denied. I am currently not paid for any transport, which is killing me,” Max said.
However Max is still thankful for this chance to build up his portfolio in the creative industry: “Although I am working for free, the company actually exposed me to various opportunities and the chance to really see what the industry is really like.”
“But opportunities don’t translate into money…money is required for survival,” Max said.
Like Max, 22-year-old student Derrick Tan does not mind an unpaid internship as long it opens up future job and industrial opportunities for him.
Asia City Publishing, an intra-Asian publishing company had put out a recruitment notice for interns in the May 22 edition of I-S Magazine, a free pick-up weekly publication.
(Photo: the advertisement in the magazine. Courtesy of Darren Boon.)
Note the disclaimer on the advertisements: “This is an unsalaried position; expenses will be covered”.
This reporter attended an interview for the position of editorial intern on Thursday, June 4 and took the opportunity to quiz the interviewer, a senior writer with the company on the reimbursement of expenses.
The interviewer said that while the company will reimburse for all expenses incurred by the intern on company businesses or jobs, there was no indication during the interview that the company will pay for commuting expenses to-and-fro from the intern’s home and company.
When asked over the phone last Tuesday on whether the commuting expenses of the intern will be compensated, the interviewer said: “I don’t think so.”
The intern needs to be present in the office for a minimum of four days a week from 10am to 530pm – five when the workload gets heavy – for a minimum of two to three months to “get the best out of the internship”.
While Asia City Publishing does not pay its interns, there are other internship positions advertised on The Straits Times classifieds section on Friday June 5 that offer a monthly stipend of $300 or more.
Asia City Publishing has yet to reply to The Online Citizen’s queries on the company’s position on unpaid internships.
Looking at the legal and ethical aspects of unpaid internships
The Online Citizen spoke to Mr Eugene Tan, Assistant Professor of Law, Singapore Management University, who specialises in business ethics and corporate social responsibility, regarding unpaid internships.
Mr Tan said an unpaid internship arrangement cannot be faulted on legal grounds if both the employer and the intern agree to the terms of the agreement.
Although he acknowledged that the “bargaining power of both parties are unequal”, the prospective intern can always refuse the internship on the outset if he or she is not happy with the terms offered by the employer.
Thus, Mr Tan advised prospective interns to scrutinise the offers cautiously and weigh the benefits of the training received and the potential for future employment against the drawbacks for having no stipend, for example.
He went on to explain that a grey area exists in whether a stipend or gratuity should be provided and in what should be the minimum sum for reimbursement.
“Companies need not necessarily be behaving unethically if no stipend or allowance is provided to the interns. Companies would argue that they are providing interns with training and career preparation at no costs to the interns,” he said.
However, Mr Tan encourages companies not to view interns as “free or cheap labour” but to provide the best training and exposure for the interns as a means of attracting and retaining talent.
He added that interns should not expect reimbursement for daily transport expenses incurred for the to-and-fro commute between home and office as employees are not reimbursed for that. However, he personally feels that it is out of goodwill that interns be given a general allowance.
A learning experience for students
Singapore Management University (SMU) requires all undergraduates to fulfil a minimum 10-week long internship at a business organisation before graduation which can be completed in Singapore or overseas.
A spokesperson from SMU told The Online Citizen that the internships provide a structured learning experience and allow students to gain experience in real word assignments beyond their learning experience in the classroom to obtain optimal career-related experience.
While the host company usually provides a stipend to the intern, SMU is open to unpaid internships and will evaluate them with the host organisation on a case-by-case basis.
The spokesperson said: “Students are encouraged to evaluate internship opportunities based on the challenge and value provided by the company, beyond just the stipend alone.”
While the spokesperson acknowledged that the stipend is one of the incentives which attract students, the job challenge, training, office environment and culture are also pull factors.
While SMU provides career counsellors to assist and guide students on their internship experience, students need to research and apply for positions which align with their skills, knowledge and career aspirations.
But for Max now, all he hopes to do is to earn some money. “I am seriously eating wind. With so much debt to clear, I am constantly depressed,” he said.
He added: “The underlying point is I feel that if I am creating revenue for the company, I should be at least be reimbursed for transport”
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Umm, this is a non-issue, really. Sometimes, there’s a trade-off between getting career-related exposure and earning money. The latter, you can always do by taking on a temp job, giving tuition etc. But you can’t always have the best of both worlds.
Perhaps the real question is why SMU makes an internship compulsory. That seems to be why students are compelled to take up unpaid internships.
We should know that
1) there is a value to the student for doing an internship in terms of training and learning
2) there is always a cost to the firm even if they take on an unpaid intern, even if it is solely non-pecuniary
There is evidence that MBAs in fact pay for a part of their MBA training by taking a pay cut while getting their degree and other lost opportunities, even though they might be seen to be sponsored by their employers.
This is one key reason why interns are never paid full salaries. The firm has no way of recouping their training costs and paying these interns lower than their ‘revenue contribution’ is a way of making this mutual arrangement work.
And being a student from SMU, I can say that the compulsory internship requirement works well for the most part. Undergrads get professional experience and firms get to evaluate future employs. And most interns do find paid internships.
Note: the title of this article is a typical The New Paper kind of tabloid header, IMO
Joshua
ntu’s engin interns are also required to take up a 22 week internship to complete their degree
sorry, interns should be students
i see no worth in taking up internship with no/little pay. i’d rather do an unrelated job for better money.
good point, La nausee. There is a trade off betw $$$ and career prospects but I’m not sure if students are given a choice by NTU to work for companies that pay. I mean if you need the money and are in debt then its a Hobson’s Choice.
I took an intern from a polytechnic. The polytechnic recommended a monthly allowance of $500 and indicated that there is no need to pay CPF or SDF levy.
I decided to pay a higher allowance and also to give training opportunity for the intern. The allowance will cover the travelling cost and lunch, and hopefully some pocket money.
In return, the intern was able to do some useful productive work that justify the allowance.
I think that unpaid internship is unfair and that the advertised allowance of $300 is too low. I hope that employers will be fairer to the interns.
I wonder could the employer turn around and say “no one owes you a living” and walk away scot free?
I mean, could they not say, “dun complain, you can offer solution or not? cannot why comeplain? You got job count you self lucky already. I could have hired a foreigner you know? give you experience already still complain. so choosey ah these people. a bit only comeplain” ???
I wonder.
The capitalist pig won’t hesitate to exploit the working class;;these greedy people without a conscience have been at it for hundreds of years, and they are not going to stop any time soon, and they have the kind blessings of the PAPies to SPUR them on.
8) budamax1952 on June 17th, 2009 4.04 pm
//The capitalist pig won’t hesitate to exploit the working class;;these greedy people without a conscience have been at it for hundreds of years..//
And now that times are so bad British Airways has asked its 40,000 workers to work for free for one month as the ailing Airline is seeking to cut cost to the quick.
See link :
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article6510479.ece
To rub salt on the wound, the Capitalists condemn and incriminate Socialists & Communists as if the latter are murderers and robbers!
We must bite the bullet. The business owners must make money or at least profit as much as humanly possible.
internship is just another nicely worded term that = free/cheap labour.
another way companies suppress wages of the working class, cheaper than FWs. why should anyone “pimp” him/herself just to gain a foothold in any industry?
little wonder bosses can be so ya ya papaya. always got constant flow of free & cheap labour.
Would hiring fresh grads for low wage or free (ok, maybe $1 at least) lead to lowering unemployment rate? But how does this solve INCOME problem?
Its good for economy – fresh grads still need to take public transport and pay and pay fares as adults once they no longer student. Wow, even little or no income still can contribute to econ wor.
10 years ago… during my attachment I got $500 with free company transport. Of course I was with an MNC.
Now less… really crazy. I pity those students. Prepare to suffer. Don’t work for Singapore companies. They exploit you.
Just to add… I received $500 a month as allowance 10 years ago during my attachment.
I think working as an internalship for free is exploitation of students for free labour. The employer does give the students training and practical knowledge about management, engineering or running business which is a valuable experience in the working world. However the student still need to take public transport to work and work for the company for 8 hours a day and perform tasks that are of value to the company. I believe the interns should be paid fairly like $500-700 a month for the work. Even the temporary work which many students take in the holidays they can earn $1000 a month for 8 hours a day work. The money which the intern’s employer pay is similar to those part timer’s pay which may put some students of internship if it is not compulsory.
Hi la nausee,
I think sometimes we shouldn’t blame the institutions for making the internships compulsory, SMU included. But as SMU said, the host organization would often offer a stipend to the intern.
As for Temasek Poly, they recommend at least a stipend of 400 bucks a month IIRC. OT is to reimbursed if done. No CPF though.
@Darren Boon, as Asst Prof Eugene Tan was quoted as saying in your article, the bargaining positions of the parties are unequal. One of the main reasons seems to be that the SMU students have to take up some internship. Hence, they are sometimes forced into taking an unpaid internship just to fulfill the requirement. as opposed to getting some other paid job. That seems to be the situation with ‘Max’ whom you describe in your article (see paragraph 2).
So the university, by making internships compulsory, is actually aggravating the situation of inequality. Ergo, it should try to help students by negotiating fairer terms with the companies.
A certain law firm pays their intern $6 a DAY.
The work done for them is definitely worth much much much more than that.
IIRC A certain law firm pays their intern $6 a DAY.
The work done for them is definitely worth much much much more than that.
Actually I really don’t see the issue here. Both sides have something to gain from the deal, it’s not like the employers point a gun on the interns’ heads to work for low pay. The interns need the experience and exposure, and the employers need labour. Just looking at the job market nowadays, companies will only hire those with some experience. Who really wants to hire fresh grads who are complete greenhorns? The schools here mostly teach theory – they don’t teach students how to apply all their academic stuff to real life. Right now people really don’t have the luxury to be picky as the jobless rate had gone up.
Secondly, I’m quite disturbed by the reporter’s means of interviewing the interviewer by posing as an editorial intern applicant. Sure, investigative journalism seems cool, but is there really a need to ambush the interviewer that way? By doing that, the reporter actually gave the impression that he couldn’t be trusted, and I’m really not surprised that the company refused to comment afterwards.
I highly doubt this should be seen as a case of exploitation – there is a willing buyer, and a willing seller, and minimal coercion. If the student is stuck with a crap company, he ought to up his game to get a better one. If a firm offers crap terms, they aren’t going to get anyone decent. simple as that.
Hi la nausee,
Yup. Max situation is a result of a particular institution’s policy that students have to take on an internship. But I can’t disclose which institution due to Max’s request for privacy. But I advise the readers not to link it back to SMU just because the comments came from SMU.
The whole idea of this article is to highlight that unpaid internships do exist. And throw out a discussion on whether students/jobless/people who want industry work experience can afford to be picky about no way, and secondly, whether no-paid internships are fair for these people who take it up.
[ I received $500 a month as allowance 10 years ago during my attachment. ]
IA host companies usually pay $500 max. Anything above that and they have to open an account with CPF and pay monthly contributions for the IA period. Too much trouble so those that are generous will pay $500 and give allowance (not considered part of salary).
@24
Shell interns earn 1.2k while SPC interns get 1.4k…I got 800 while i was an intern too and we dun pay cpf….cos i think the money is termed as allowance or stipend so its not taxable nor cpf deductable
Forget abt interns, what abt employees who are asked to work for free?
Our MSM does not give the -ve reactions of workers affected. So here is piece from BBC on reaction of UK workers asked to work for free. Some supportive, some not.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8104924.stm
Let me give a totally different perspective on this matter. I am in a very reputable MNC and part of my job is to handle internship requests. Our guidelines to reporting officers with interns are that the students are to be given meaningful work and projects, not treated as cheap manual labour. As a result of this policy, our interns have steep learning curves and we really do not want internships of less than 4-6 mths duration as it is taxing on the reporting officer. We have interns practically all year round and we pay all our interns a modest allowance, just in case anyone is interested.
There are certain sections within the company that are iconic and extremely popular with interns. My mailbox often gets flooded with unsolicited requests for internships both from local and foreign institutes for internships to these departments.
To use the SMU example, the duration of 2 mths is too short to be beneficial and we will reject these unsolicited requests for internships. Our departments do not want too many interns and do not have the budgets to pay allowances to so many of them.
However, I frequently get SMU students who have very influential parents writing in through MPs and Senior Mgmt to take in their offspring for internships. A sweetener often dangled is that the interns are willing to work for free so long as we are willing to take them in. I will sometimes be made to accept these interns who are not wanted in the first place. The experience so far with the SMU interns have been mixed at best. At worst, (yes, we have them) we get the occasional spoilt brat who cannot put his/her nose down to the grindstone and / or complains at every little thing.
You see, it isn’t always true that free internships are because companies are exploiting interns.
In good companies, interns and their parents offer themselves for free just to get their child in for the exposure.
Lionel De Souza
Maybe you shld propose this?
“The city of Beijing is planning to hire thousands of internet censors in a fresh sign of the authorities’ attempts to tighten their grip on cyberspace.
The city will seek to employ at least 10,000 “internet volunteers” before the end of this year to monitor “harmful” websites and content, said an official at the municipal authority’s information office.”
Dear recipient of unwanted interns,
Thank you for your sharing. It certainly adds in value and perspective to the discussion.
Can something be Unethical Yet Legal?
Think about it.
Where is the moral conscience of the enterprise? Are they living their corporate values? See again the state of our value system. Even the biz world is infected.
I see a very very sad state of decay in our society. If an intern is subjected to such practices just because it is the “downturn of a century”, can you imagine what “fair” dealings the customer or even employees can expect?
What is $500 pm for a fair day’s work? It’s only $3.50 an hr.
Can you all see the terrible greed in our society? Where did this hedious value and all the consequential behaviours come from????? …….not looking after Ah Gong, false display of humility, communication of half truths, chasing the 5Cs, getting students to bear the costs of their internship,etc?
When are we going to wake up man !!!!!
I think first we need to differentiate compulsory internships as part of a degree programme to a voluntary one.
I remember doing 2 internships in Aust. 10 years ago as part of my uni coursework with no allowance of any kind; and I had to pay course fees to boot! Internships are meant to be about getting practical experience; students should consider it an extension of the classroom. Instead of bargaining for $, they should try make the most of the experience there by bargaining for more work and responsibilities.
As for voluntary internships, don’t get one if you need to get a real job with a proper paycheck. After graduation, I interned voluntarily for 2 months at a TV news station without pay as well because I thought that getting hired as a fresh grad with lousy grades was a long shot. But who would have known – I got hired soon after that. (I still don’t know if they actually liked my work/attitude or if I was easy and convenient…)
For an internship to be worth one’s while, you have to know what you want out of it and $ is definitely not one of the reasons why you want that internship.
I hope this helps any one thinking of being an intern.
“recipient of unwanted interns” is quite right. Right after my final exams in 1999 (bleak job market like now), I sent off several emails to companies saying that I’m willing to work at for free because they are actually places I wanted to work at eventually.
And with regards to IS Mag, I much preferred it in the 2003-5 years when it was much, much edgier; and if I were a fresh grad then, I would have gone for it.
I wouldn’t agree that an internship should be unpaid. Given rising prices in Singapore, commutation alone is not cheap. Be it out of goodwill of what so, the company should pay the intern as a form of gratitude.
Speaking about trading free labour for experience, I think we should know that internships can be quite crap. They can just ask you to arrange tonnes of documents and mask this mediocore job as “oh this can allow you to run through the company’s operations in the past and let you gain practical knowledge”. Yes I agree you can learn from this but it depends a lot on the perspective one is taking. To me, it borders on the idea of exploitation.
In another case, if the intern is producing more productive work (like drafting out a design or aiding the company in a deal etc), he definitely must be paid! I don’t see why “gaining experience” can used to weigh against unpaid work. When peasants are forced from their farmlands into factories at the start of capitalism, they always “gain experience” as they are handling machines and stuff that they have never encountered before- so they are LEARNING as well as GAINING EXPERIENCE. Following the flow of the argument, I guess these peasants can also be not paid? Lol.
Some may argue that internships are part of academics and should not be too concerned with money….. SO WHY ATTACHED THEM TO COMPANIES (come on la, all companies want to earn money) THAT DEAL WITH MONEY? Since work had been done, and money gained by the company in anyway, the worker have to be rewarded! Think again from another point of view, this time a graduate working in the same company, did the same amount of work, earned the same amount of money for company and GAIN THE SAME AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE as the intern, but instead, we know that he should not be working for free….. So in this case, what sets a graduate and an intern apart is the immeasurable better chances at securing a job upon graduation.
That is my 2 cents worth.
There are ppl out there who don’t even have a job but maybe willing to take a much lower pay. Please consider these people 1st instead of hiring interns.
I am just wondering guys. What is with this article? Should not the equation be like this?
Intern = Student = Also someone who is able to use his half a brain to practice his freedom to choose?
I have worked for advertising companies for free as an intern, just to get my first foot in. Worked my way up and finally got a place in the agency as an art director.
As much as do support that all interns should be paid to a certain extent. What happened to pride in one’s work? Is money the ONLY motivating factor these days? I mean we chose the career path by choosing a subject in Uni. Why not choose where you want to go to work or do your internship? Why complain when we can choose?
C’mon, these are students we are talking about, most of them still very young surviving on pocket money, some of them from poor to average families wanting to do well. Its totally reasonable that companies compensate their travelling expenses and other added costs.
Our MM and SM, past their retirement age, already have enough money to last well beyond few generations, still won’t work for free (even though their ‘passion’ is build Spore).
The only way the public can react to this is to boycott the goods of the company if it is common knowledge that the particular company is going for free labour.
Let’s put it this way – when times are bad, there is more incentive to exploit unpaid interns; when times are good, the incentive is just lesser.
Profitable companies will jump in the band wagon of using free labour in the name of “bad times”. Same excuse for retrenching a worker, then using existing worker to do the retrenched workers job at the same pay, same excuse for reducing pay and same excuse for cutting all other costs.
Incidentally, now is the the 3 mth break for uni students and I am doing my internship now.
Like Max, it is compulsory for me to do an internship.
To me, as a student, there is always choice.
On my school’s career website, there were both paid and unpaid internships.
Since i know i need the money, i took on the paid internship.
So i see unpaid internship as a non-issue.
If I am motivated by exposure, i go for the one that gives me that, regardless of paid or unpaid. If salary is necessary, I go for the one that is paid.
In the end, it’s about me picking the organization that suits me. And not pick an organization and ask them to suit me.
Who is the bigger boss in sg, just look at Temasek investment company. So now u know why we have so much of foreign labours.
hi Student,
in the end its about fair compensation for the contribution to the company. as some have pointed out there really is no good reason for any company to make financial gains at the expense of interns.
just as a salaried staff is earning his/her keep while working & gaining experience, why should the disparity be so wide it is viewed as exploitation?
When the economy is bad, perhaps unpaid interns is the only option, especially if you want to widen your experience in a particular industry. But it is not a long-term option. You earn what you work for, otherwise I say this market is a failure ie no meritocracy.
i was a willing unpaid intern over at a major publisher a few years ago, with travel expenses reimbursed. those 3 months prepared me for my career in the media industry and it doesn’t hurt that it looks good in my CV too.
Nowadays, it is so hard to find a decent job after graduation even internship because there are some got unpaid. And due to the crisis right now, I found out about bloodbanker.com which they have all the information all of the Blood center in the United States where you can get paid $50/hour to donate blood!. This is really helpful even if it’s just a part time job and the bottom line of this is to save lives. As we all know, Blood bank shortages kill tons of people all the time and it is time to spread the word about blood donation and give blood, you will never know when You might need blood.
By the way do you have a twitter or facebook account so that I can folow you.. I found your topic interesting.. thanks
it depends on whether the company has good intention of training and exposing students to challenges in a professional setting, vis-a-vis an employer who is just looking for cheap labour to do menial tasks, e.g. filing. In the latter case, the student often learns very little and have nothing to show for their effort at the end of it. In the former case, I’d say the intern has it good even without a stipend with all that free training and exposure – don’t forget that a company takes certain risks by taking in an intern also. But in the latter case, I’d say the intern deserves at least a $300 stipend. At the end of the day, it’s a free market. People have choices.
Even if it’s $50 or free packed lunches or even hampers for injured interns. As long as companies give a small token of appreciation for their interns and make their interns feel appreciated, no one will complain about unpaid internship.
If the interns are unpaid, but are treated like dogs and only allowed to photocopy, clear the trash and serve coffee, they will win and complain like now.
well, exploitation is very 1st world. justlike MNCs moving operations to countries where labour force is dirt cheap.
does “sweat shop” ring any bells?
Whether it is an internship or not, you should be compensated for working. Not paying a person salary is an exploitation of labor.
You need to be compensated preferably in monetary terms when you produce goods or a service for a company.
I even receive SGD240 being a recruit years back serving the nation.
I disagree with Mr Eugene Tan, Assistant Professor of Law, Singapore Management University that it is out of goodwill that interns be given a general allowance. It’s a must.
Instead SMU should look at whether the minimum 10-week long internship at SMU is compulsory for students in bad economic times or is there a substitute for internship like doing a thesis to replace it or engaging more students to run their stores in SMU. Just a suggestion.