Practice What You Preach!: Why We Should Be Ending Unpaid Internships

Unpaid internships are racist, classist, and oppressive.

A couple of months ago, there was a debate about the ongoing dilemma of unpaid internships. 

One side has historically argued that experience serves as well enough compensation, while the other side emphasized the hardships that are associated with unpaid internships and the inherent barriers that exist within them. What the former group fails to consider is that unpaid internships disproportionately affect people of color, and more specifically cis and trans women of color, hindering their ability to find future successes. As women of color research fellows for Pay Our Interns, we advocate for other women of color interns to be fairly and equitably compensated in Congressional internships. So we’re here to push other organizations to do the same. Enough is enough! It’s time to put an end to harmful practices that demand unpaid labor from BIWOC*.  We are no longer accepting practices that uphold a racialized and gendered economic system that says BIWOC aren’t worthy of being paid for our labor. 

Let’s break down exactly why unpaid internships are inherently racist and why organizations that work to transform systems for marginalized folk should be against them.

The racism within unpaid internships 

According to The Atlantic, there are between 500,000 and one million unpaid interns in the United States. That means that around half a million people every day are not being compensated for their labor and their time. This is further aggregated by research that shows that women are 77 percent more likely to not be paid during their internship than men. This indicates that unpaid internships primarily impact the careers and well-being of cis and trans women, furthering economic gender disparities. However, the problem becomes even more clear when we look at the racial implications underlying the maintenance of unpaid internships. 

Unpaid internships reinforce the racial wealth divide. Period. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the median household wealth for white families was 12 times higher than the median household wealth for Black families. Since most students, especially BIWOC, are forced to take on unpaid internships because it makes them more competitive, families of color struggle to support their children that have these unpaid internships. This results in students of color taking out additional loans and increasing their debt to maintain these internships, or leaving school with a less competitive résumé compared to their, often white, peers that could afford to take on unpaid internships.

The importance of providing paid internships for BIWOC 

Real diversity and inclusion within the workplace starts internally.  It starts with paying BIWOC for their labor. For a career-starting position, being unable to afford to work for free can have long-term consequences. One of these long-term consequences is a lack of BIWOC in certain fields or in leadership positions. In order to establish a pipeline for future BIWOC, it is important to pay us for our labor and provide us with resources that support our overall well-being, thus giving us chances to assert ourselves within the workspace. Promoting unpaid internships in organizations that promote diversity and inclusion shows a lack of structural engagement with the realities of unpaid internships and worker exploitation. Unpaid internships are part of a foundation that favors affluent and primarily white students. Therefore, instead of increasing opportunities, unpaid internships maintain a racialized and gendered economic system that pushes BIWOC to the margins while benefiting from the work off our  backs. Providing paid internships, especially for BIWOC, moves us closer to achieving racial and gender economic equality. 

With that said, organizations that have missions of inclusivity and diversity—but aren’t doing the hard work of examining their actions—only succeed to further harm already marginalized populations. By continuing not to pay interns, specifically BIWOC interns, organizations are aligning themselves with historical practices that affirm that these individuals are not worthy of being compensated for their labor. It’s not cool for organizations to not practice what they preach and use BIWOC as props. While it is important to have BIWOC present to diversify the workforce and bring forth valuable ideas and insights, it’s more important to pay us for our labor. We should not be recreating the very hierarchies we are working to end. It’s the responsibility of organizations—especially those working for marginalized communities—to do the work of dismantling oppressive racialized and gendered economic structures by paying all interns! 

*The term BIWOC is used to describe cis, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color who identify with the terms “woman” and “women.”. 

Shontrice Barnes 

Shontrice Barnes (she/they) is Black feminist and womanist scholar, writer, and pleasure activist. Currently she is a Research Fellow for Pay Our Interns and a current second-year Master’s student in Public Policy with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at George Washington University. She has done work and research centered around inequalities in economic policy, criminal justice policy, sexual and reproductive health policy, and social welfare policy. As a writer, Shontrice has published work for the Black Feminist Collective and Women In and Beyond Global. Shontrice is also the sole administrator for the blog The Black Caged Bird, which is dedicated to exploring Black feminist pleasure politics through a variety of topics centered in the liberation of marginalized folks, especially Black women. In her free time, she enjoys taking care of their plants, discovering new Black women rappers, and watching reruns of the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Brittney Jimenez 

Brittney Jimenez (she/her) is a Research Fellow at Pay Our Interns where she conducts research on the inequities of paid internships. She is a Master’s student at Cal State Northridge studying in the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department. Her research discusses youth involvement in contemporary social movements and their continued political engagement.