3 ms·
"I think an often overlooked idea is that spec work is similar to internship. For little to no pay, you gain experience and a portfolio piece. I definitely don’
by KaeseEs 15y ago
"I think an often overlooked idea is that spec work is similar to internship. For little to no pay, you gain experience and a portfolio piece. I definitely don’t see anyone calling that exploitation. Yet being an intern lasts much longer."
Is it actually a common thing for design internships to be unpaid or minimum wage? Programmer internships, following internships in engineering disciplines, are usually pretty well paid, so this idea is foreign to me.
- zachinglis 15y agoInteresting. Both programming and design internships I've seen personally have been severely lowered pay. Because mentoring is meant to subsidise that (Though I've seen little mentoring in those cases.)
- russell_h 15y agoIn fact, I'm pretty sure that an internship where you create something that a company benefits from, and you are not paid for it is illegal (although by no means uncommon) under US labor laws. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html Which references: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pdf http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pd...
- true_religion 15y agoI doubt its illegal because I have friends who interned at the department of labor (and other govt. jobs) doing all the jobs that would be commonly parsed out to full time employees.
- polymatter 15y agoYou are assuming that it is always true that the government bureaucracy is always in complete compliance with the law. I believe this is an unwarranted assumption.