Unpaid Interns: Real World Work Or Just Free Labor?
Over 1 million Americans a year work as interns. About half of them are unpaid.
Alex Footman was among them, until recently. He worked as an unpaid intern for Black Swan, a film that won numerous awards and grossed over $300 million.
Footman was hoping an internship with Black Swan would open doors in Hollywood. Instead, it has made him rethink his career plans. “This was six months of my life which left me nowhere further along in my career than before,” Footman says. “It was not a learning experience and that was what I had expected. This really just seemed like I was just working and wasn’t getting paid for it.”
He’s now part of the open class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures, the film’s producer. He and another unpaid intern, Eric Glatt, are suing to win back pay for the hours they worked. They’re also filing for an injunction that would keep the company from hiring unpaid interns in the future.
(Source: NPR)
