Jobs websites bring up advert after advert seeking "ambitious graduates" with a "work hard, play hard attitude" to fill numerous unpaid or minimum-wage internships and apprenticeships – wording that barely complies with age-discrimination law and makes plain the cultural advantage younger, cheaper applicants have over older ones.
British interns at profit-making firms must be paid the minimum wage unless the internship makes up part of their degree course or they are doing short-term "shadowing", or observing.
"We want to improve understanding of the application of national minimum-wage legislation to internships and ensure that employers comply with it," said Mr Clegg's social-mobility proposals.
Corbyn pledged to set up a cabinet committee for the arts, to give performers more protection against low wages and tackle unpaid internships through a "living waged national creative apprenticeship service".
I think it's even more bullshit for you to criticise groups such as Interns Aware that are pressuring the government to implement minimum-wage laws when unpaid internships aren't just occurring in areas such as journalism and media, but also marketing, accountancy, PR, shop floor positions and a raft of other things.
It has thrown pizza parties for the engineering club at the nearby state university, added paid internships, raised wages, and started offering English classes to Spanish-speaking production workers — a move the company hopes will retain those workers and prepare them for promotions.
It contributes up to half the cost of the wages of each internship and recruits through student unions, university career services and job centres.
It used $112 from the fund to buy Ms. Hyde-Peyrefitte an unlimited monthly MetroCard, allowing her to go to and from work before her internship wages, $7.25 an hour, kicked in.
She heads up NUS campaigns on unpaid internships, the living wage and is developing work around rights for apprentices.
Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers.
