The recession is not an excuse to avoid paying interns

This is a blog post by Tom Hawkins, PRCA Policy Executive

 

Since launching the PRCA’s campaign with PR Week to end unpaid internships last year I have been pleased and impressed by the increasing number of PRCA agencies that have committed to paying interns at least the National Minimum Wage.

At the moment there are 69 agencies signed up which means the list has tripled in under a year. Just yesterday Third City signed up.

However, it is not all good news, a survey we conducted with Intern Aware, the intern lobby group, revealed that over 70% of internships in our industry are unpaid. During the survey process Intern Aware and I were contacted with some real horror stories from current and former interns.

This is still not good enough.

Even worse, it appears that outside the PR industry former champions of the paid intern cause such as Left Foot Forward are now advertising for unpaid internship positions. 

Since posting, Left Foot Forward have stated that this is a “voluntary” role, which is a classic trick implemented by MPs regularly. The position may now be ‘voluntary’ as a legal manoeuvre but it is still an ‘editorial internship’ with the roles and responsibilities that tend to come with a ‘job’.

Our intern guidelines that will be published shortly will clearly state that paying interns is a legal and moral obligation. The bottom line is that even in a recession we must pay our employees for the services they provide. At the moment it is still far too easy to abuse the inexperience and age of interns, but they are not volunteers, they are young graduates looking for work.

We must not lose sight that internships are extremely worthwhile for young graduates looking to enter our industry. PR’s know the importance of first impressions, so fairly paid internships are our best chance to keep the best and the brightest that we are trying to attract to our industry.

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