Riding the Free Labor Train
abracetti on Jun 26th 2010
The job market is really scary right now, especially for the journalism field. I know many students who took advantage of going to school and gaining a BA in Journalism, but during that entire time they were working for free at different magazines/newspapers and collecting unemployment. Now that unemployment is being reduced and extensions are done with, a lot of these students fear they will continue to work for free at these publications and never be picked up to be on staff.
This NY Times article brings up an interesting point about violating minimum wage and work labor laws. I think a lot of companies are just riding it out until action is taken by the Department of Labor, but something has to be done soon. So many new writers and freelancers are becoming scared to venture into the field that they have a passion for and are forced to work meaningless job that they have no love for, just to make ends meet. It shouldn’t be like that.
There are so many loops holes in these labor and discrimination laws that employers are aware of and they continue to take advantage of it.
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One Response to “Riding the Free Labor Train”
I completely agree with you on this issue of unpaid interns. Many are scared to pursue what they love because of employers not treating them fairly when it comes to paying them. Companies should not be taking advantage of interns and the future of journalism because they should know what it feels like to try and get your foot in the door.