What are the legal requirements regarding student internships?
Certain laws apply to internships. In order to avoid violating Federal minimum wage laws, for-profit companies should be able to show that unpaid interns will be “trainees” rather than employees. The U.S. Department of Labor has developed six criteria for differentiating between an employee entitled to minimum wage and a learner/trainee who, while an employee, may be unpaid. The criteria are: • The training, although it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school. • The training is for the benefit of the intern, not the entity providing it. • The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under the close observation of a regular employee or supervisor. • The employer derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern, and, on occasion, the operations may actually be impeded by the presence of the intern. • The interns are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the tr
