Federal Judge Says Interns Should Be Paid 540
An anonymous reader writes "Student interns are typically relegated to menial tasks like fetching coffee and taking out the trash, the idea being that they get paid in experience instead of money. On Tuesday, Manhattan Federal District Court Judge William H. Pauley disagreed, ruling in favor of two interns who sued Fox Searchlight Pictures to be paid for their work on the 2010 film Black Swan. The interns did chores that otherwise would have been performed by paid employees. Pauley ruled, in accordance with criteria laid out by the U.S. Department of Labor, that unpaid internships should be educational in nature and specifically structured to the benefit of the intern, and reasoned that if interns are going to do grunt work like regular employees, then they should be paid like regular employees."
The article seems to imply that this might be the beginning of the end for the rampant abuse of unpaid internships: "Judge Pauley rejected the argument made by many companies to adopt a 'primary benefit test' to determine whether an intern should be paid, specifically whether 'the internship’s benefits to the intern outweigh the benefits to the engaging entity.' Judge Pauley wrote that such a test would be too subjective and unpredictable."
There goes the industry... (Score:0, Funny)
If interns have to get paid, there goes Hollywood, Print, and Radio media industries... Interns pretty much do everything these days.
Re:Genius judge (Score:5, Funny)
There are jobs that people really, really, really want to do for zero pay. Why wouldn't you allow them to make that decision for themselves?
Re:bye bye interns (Score:2, Funny)
This just in: corporate whore roman_mir is butthurt over ruling that doesn't kiss the ass of Corporate America.
Film at 11.
Re:There goes the industry... (Score:2, Funny)
If interns have to get paid, there goes Hollywood, Print, and Radio media industries... Interns pretty much do everything these days.
How about laying off some lazy fat management types to free up some money?
Exactly, like the GP said, there go the movie, print, and radio industries. Nothing anyone can do about it now but wait for the sweet embrace of death.
Wait, Hollywood would go belly-up? And we're complaining about this?
Re:some schools make you pay for the credits (Score:5, Funny)
Is it possible for anyone to have a conversation on the Internet without being a gigantic dick?