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Thanks to employment laws it would be illegal for any US startup to let you work for them for free; there's no legal form of volunteering for for-profit compani

by krosaen 15y ago

Thanks to employment laws it would be illegal for any US startup to let you work for them for free; there's no legal form of volunteering for for-profit companies (save a very clearly defined educational internship where the benefit is to you, not to the company in any material form). Good luck anyways.

grannyg00se 15y ago
This seems ridiculous and unenforceable. Has anybody ever been arrested or charged with working for free? Apparently Obama is working toward allowing people to work for free in Georgia, at least. I imagine there is some kind of slippery slope toward abuse that is of concern to some people.
- krosaen 15y ago
  What it really means is that with each person you allow to "volunteer" for you are opening yourself up to liability that they could sue for back payment of minimum wage if they ever became disgruntled. Same goes for people who work for sweat equity. This doesn't mean a startup should never make such arrangements, it just means a startup should be careful and consider the risk (e.g hiring one key employee vs having an army of volunteers).