Intern Aware

Last updated
Intern Aware
Intern Aware
Founded2010
Location
Key people
Gus Baker (Co-Director)

Ben Lyons (Co-Director)

Chris Hares (National Campaigns Manager)
Website www.internaware.org

Intern Aware is the United Kingdom national campaign for fair internships, founded in 2010. Working closely in cooperation with businesses, trade bodies and trade unions, they aim to help employers develop high quality internship schemes with recruitment based on merit, and payment that complies with employment law. They also work with interns to ensure they receive the pay they are potentially entitled to by law.

Contents

They believe that unpaid internships are exploitative, exclusive and unfair. By asking people to work without pay, employers exclude those with talent, ambition and drive who cannot afford to work for free. They campaign that employers and young people alike benefit from the best graduates getting the best jobs. They argue that paying interns a fair wage can ensure that this happens.

Policies

Much of Intern Aware’s argument focuses on how interns fit into the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Main proposal

• (Excluding existing exemptions) the UK Government should designate anyone who has undertaken a period of work experience for over four weeks to be a “worker” under the meaning of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Act.

Other proposals

History

The organisation started as a Facebook group named "Interns Must Be Paid The Minimum Wage". [1] It has led campaigns focused on the non-payment of parliamentary interns. [2] [3] [4] It also campaigned during the Labour Party's leadership election, securing the support of all five candidates [5] [6] and persuading Andy Burnham MP to demand that the BBC end unpaid work experience. [7] The campaign has also drawn attention to the connection between increased graduate unemployment and unpaid interns. [8] [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. They are typically undertaken by students and graduates looking to gain relevant skills and experience in a particular field. Employers benefit from these placements because they often recruit employees from their best interns, who have known capabilities, thus saving time and money in the long run. Internships are usually arranged by third-party organizations that recruit interns on behalf of industry groups. Rules vary from country to country about when interns should be regarded as employees. The system can be open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wage</span> Payment by an employer to an employee for labour

A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as minimum wage, prevailing wage, and yearly bonuses, and remunerative payments such as prizes and tip payouts. Wages are part of the expenses that are involved in running a business. It is an obligation to the employee regardless of the profitability of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unemployment benefits</span> Payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people

Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by governmental bodies to unemployed people. Depending on the country and the status of the person, those sums may be small, covering only basic needs, or may compensate the lost time proportionally to the previous earned salary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Living wage</span> Minimum income to meet a workers basic needs

A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor productivity. Needs are defined to include food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Due to the flexible nature of the term "needs", there is not one universally accepted measure of what a living wage is and as such it varies by location and household type. A related concept is that of a family wage – one sufficient to not only support oneself, but also to raise a family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salary</span> Form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee

A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. Salary can also be considered as the cost of hiring and keeping human resources for corporate operations, and is hence referred to as personnel expense or salary expense. In accounting, salaries are recorded in payroll accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Minimum Wage Act 1998</span> United Kingdom legislation

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom. From 1 April 2024, the minimum wage is £11.44 for people aged 21 and over, £8.60 for 18- to 20-year-olds, and £6.40 for 16- to 17-year-olds and apprentices.

A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed; instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried employment in order to undertake a role that is normally unpaid or voluntary, or which cannot be measured in terms of a task. A paid judge in an English or Welsh magistrates' court was formerly termed a "stipendiary magistrate", as distinct from the unpaid "lay magistrates". In 2000, these were respectively renamed "district judge" and "magistrate".

This article gives detailed information on the employment situation in Hong Kong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938</span> United States wage law

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 29 U.S.C. § 203 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppressive child labor". It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. The Act was enacted by the 75th Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth unemployment in the United Kingdom</span>

Youth unemployment in the United Kingdom is the level of unemployment among young people, typically defined as those aged 18–25. A related concept is graduate unemployment which is the level of unemployment among university graduates. Statistics for June 2010 show that there are 926,000 young people under the age of 25 who are unemployed which equates to an unemployment rate of 19.6% among young people. This is the highest youth unemployment rate in 17 years. In November 2011 youth unemployment hit 1.02 million, but had fallen to 767,000 by August 2014. The high levels of youth unemployment in the United Kingdom have led some politicians and media commentators to talk of a "lost generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum Wage Ordinance</span>

The Minimum Wage OrdinanceCap. 608 is an ordinance enacted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong to introduce a minimum wage in Hong Kong in July 2010. The executive branch proposed a minimum wage of HK$28 (~US$3.61) per hour in November 2010, which the Legislative Council voted to accept after much debate in January 2011. It came into effect on 1 May 2011. Prior to this, there had also been a fixed minimum wage for one specific class of workers, foreign domestic helpers, of HK$3,740/month. The Hong Kong statutory minimum wage for non-domestic workers is HK$37.5 (~US$4.83) per hour, effective 1 May 2019.

JobBridge was a national internship scheme formulated in 2011 by the government of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wage theft</span> Denial of wages or employee benefits rightfully owed to an employee

Wage theft is the failing to pay wages or provide employee benefits owed to an employee by contract or law. It can be conducted by employers in various ways, among them failing to pay overtime; violating minimum-wage laws; the misclassification of employees as independent contractors; illegal deductions in pay; forcing employees to work "off the clock"; not paying annual leave or holiday entitlements; or simply not paying an employee at all.

Interns Anonymous was a British based campaign and internet forum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workfare in the United Kingdom</span> System of welfare regulations

Workfare in the United Kingdom is a system of welfare regulations put into effect by UK governments at various times. Individuals subject to workfare must undertake work in return for their welfare benefit payments or risk losing them. Workfare policies are politically controversial. Supporters claim that such policies help people move off welfare and into employment whereas critics argue that they are analogous to slavery or indentured servitude and counterproductive in decreasing unemployment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum Wages Act 1948</span> Act of Parliament about Indian labour law

The Minimum Wages Act 1948 is an act of parliament concerning Indian labour law that sets the minimum wages that must be paid to skilled and unskilled workers.

In 2015, Andy Burnham, the Member of Parliament for Leigh, stood as a candidate for leadership of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. His candidacy was announced upon the release of a YouTube video on 15 May 2015. His announcement involved the promise to "rediscover the beating heart of Labour" and appeal to the aspirations "of everyone".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Living Wage Foundation</span> Campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom

The Living Wage Foundation is a campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom which aims to persuade employers to pay a living wage. The organisation was established in 2011; it publishes an annual Living Wage figure and for a fee accredits employers who pay at the rate of the "living wage".

Passion Pay is a neologism used by young people of South Korea. The similar term in use in Japan is Yarigai sakushu where the translation would be closer to Job Satisfaction 'exploitation'.

A wage subsidy is a payment to workers by the state, made either directly or through their employers. Its purposes are to redistribute income and to obviate the welfare trap attributed to other forms of relief, thereby reducing unemployment. It is most naturally implemented as a modification to the income tax system.

References

  1. Tahmincioglu, Eve (12 April 2010). "Working for Free: The Boom in Adult Interns". Time . Archived from the original on April 5, 2010.
  2. Rowley, Tom; Savage, Michael (14 September 2010). "MPs should pay us as employees, say Parliament's revolting interns". The Independent .
  3. "British democracy is run on unpaid labour". Left Foot Forward. 30 March 2011.
  4. Davis, Rowenna (18 February 2010). "House of poshos". New Statesman .
  5. Williams, Zoe (8 July 2010). "Support the Tories? That's a steep price for an internship". The Guardian .
  6. Waugh, Paul (21 July 2010). "Andy Burnham, unpaid 'volunteers' and 'interns'". The London Evening Standard .
  7. Midgley, Neil (23 July 2010). "Andy Burnham: BBC should end unpaid work experience". The Telegraph .
  8. Murray, Janet (21 September 2010). "The 1994 Group of universities advertises for graduate volunteers". The Guardian.
  9. Fineran, Lindsey; Burtun, James (11 July 2010). "The lost generation: Out of work, out of luck - graduates finding it tough". The Independent.
  10. "12 April 2010". Woman's Hour. 12 April 2010. BBC Radio 4.