On Tuesday, Feb. 28, Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Colbert Report, welcomed EPI vice president Ross Eisenbrey to discuss the proliferation of unpaid interns in the workforce. In an entertaining exchange, Eisenbrey talked about the law and economics of unpaid internships:
Over the past decade, the illegal use of unpaid interns has exploded with little protest. EPI has been a crucial voice highlighting the inadequate regulation of student internships and has detailed why it is wrong, particularly with respect to for-profit employers not paying interns for their work. Unpaid internships don’t fairly reward hard work, they block economic mobility, and they leave young workers exposed to exploitation.
Here is a sampling of EPI’s research and advocacy, which has garnered attention from government enforcement agencies, universities, and multiple major media outlets:
- PRESS CALL: Judge’s ruling in favor of paying interns is a big, necessary step forward (June 12, 2013)
- REPORT: Not-so-equal protection: Reforming the regulation of student internships (April 9, 2010)
- EVENT: Unpaid and exploited? Examining interns in the U.S. labor market (May 18, 2011)
- EVENT: Unpaid and unfair: Financing internships for low-income students (March 24, 2010)
- BLOG POST: Unpaid internships: A scourge on the labor market (Feb. 7, 2012)
- BLOG POST: Unpaid internships hurt mobility (Jan. 5, 2012)
