In order to be owed the National Minimum Wage you need to be considered a “worker.” The Department for Business Innovation and Skills states:Ī “worker” is someone who works under a contract of employment or any other kind of contract (express or implied) whereby they undertake to do work personally for someone else (and they are not genuinely self-employed).Ī contract does not have to be written and can be oral or implied. So, how do you know whether work you’ve done falls under the National Minimum Wage legislation? Where the internship did not lead to a job, over 40 per cent of interns were unemployed and over 23 per cent were working in another sector, the NUS booklet highlights. A similar 83 per cent found their employer did not help them with their job search. A small-scale study of 235 respondents conducted by Interns Anonymous found 82 per cent of interns did not find employment with their organisation. The counter-argument that interns who manage to afford an unpaid stint are benefitting by gaining future work opportunities is not true across the board. There is growing concern amongst the above organisations that unpaid internships are becoming normalised in the UK and increasing in prevalence. In partnership with TUC, Intern Aware, Interns Anonymous and Graduate Fog, they are calling for “an end to unfair, unpaid internships.” NUS is campaigning for the rights of interns and asking university career services to stop advertising unpaid internships. “Simply put unpaid internships exploit those who can afford to do them, and exclude those who cannot,” The National Union of Students (NUS) advice booklet on unpaid internships says. Unpaid Internships are illegal because they don't comply with National Minimum Wage legislation. A graduate who agrees to “work for free” and falls within the National Minimum Wage of a worker, or a student doing an unpaid internship that is not part of their degree, is actually entitled to minimum wage for each hour worked. Unpaid internships grant folks the opportunity to work and gain experience in their area, but with a limited stipend, coverage for only transport and lunch costs, or sometimes with no financial compensation whatsoever.Ī student completing work experience for his or her program is not the same as an unpaid intern. And herein lays the controversial issue of the unpaid internship. Into this gap swoops an organisation offering experience, but no pay check. When looking for work in your chosen field you can find yourself in a catch 22: Needing experience to gain employment, but needing employment to gain experience. Breaking into the job market is challenging.
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