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> United says the program’s costs are “negligible” because its own technical department provides the computing power and the unpaid interns work with existing e
by pm24601 10y ago
> United says the program’s costs are “negligible” because its own technical department provides the computing power and the unpaid interns work with existing employees to collect and load the data.
Not having to pay people is a great way to save costs.
Considering how valuable the benefit United received, United could have coughed up the money.
- burkaman 10y agoNot only could they have, but this type of unpaid internship is pretty clearly illegal: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
- gohrt 10y agoThey'll claim to be exempt: > In general, the more an internship program is structured around a classroom or academic experience as opposed to the employer’s actual operations, the more likely the internship will be viewed as an extension of the individual’s educational experience (this often occurs where a college or university exercises oversight over the internship program and provides educational credit). It's still possibly over the line, and tacky as all get-out.
- ghaff 10y agoIt's hard to tell from the article exactly what "intern" means in this context. If it's effectively a full semester unpaid co-op job then I tend to agree. If it's more along the lines of a class project then that's extremely common, mutually beneficial, and nothing I'm going to get very excited about.
- sbisker 10y agoOften when it is a class project the department or the professor's lab can collect the payment as a sponsorship instead of the students. Still sketch, but arguably at least the company is forced to pay someone for the labor, and arguably better than the company getting work for free.
- dogma1138 10y agoThat's arguably even worse, especially considering the price the students pay to attend the institution and the extra costs they pay for lab credits.
- pessimizer 10y agoI assume that intern means intern, but I'm sure that "work with existing employees to collect and load the data" means data entry.
- burkaman 10y agoThe key criterion is: > The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded This disqualifies nearly every unpaid internship in the country. This kind of thing is super common, and these guidelines are almost never enforced unless someone sues, but I just wanted to point out that this is not supposed to be unpaid whether or not the employer is feeling generous.