“We would love to have a donor say, ‘Here’s a pot of money for students who would like to be able to do an unpaid internship,’” Jennifer MacDonald said, senior director for the Center for Career Design and Development. “[Students] are able to articulate the value of that internship to their career development … go through an application process, it’s reviewed, and then [receive] a grant to cover the cost of that.”  

However, for many students, the pursuit of experience comes at the cost of unpaid labor.  Unpaid internships have widely become normalized in today’s labor market, especially in most industries students of The New School want to enter, like media, fashion, and politics. 

“It’s become a norm because [companies] know how important it is for college students to have an internship so they take advantage of that and decide to do an unpaid [internship] for credits or a letter of recommendation,” Dimeera Karia said, a second-year in the BFA fashion design program. Between choosing an unpaid internship and a paid part-time job, Karia values the former more. “The money is a pro to having a paid job, but if my resume is becoming stronger because of an unpaid internship, I would rather have that.” 

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, many students share Karia’s sentiments, recognizing the long-term return on investment an internship has that will strengthen one’s resume, despite the economic inequalities it raises. 

When MacDonald was asked about the impact on low-income students, she said, “A lot of us just get really angry because it’s those inequities and those injustices that are imparted to students through unpaid internships … If your choice is, ‘I really want to do this internship, but I have to find some way of earning the same amount or enough money so that it offsets the fact that I’m not doing my part-time job’ … that’s where the true inequity comes in and we’re well aware of it.” 

Unpaid internships are more disadvantageous to students who already have to financially support themselves. Though some students are able to work for no wages, that luxury isn’t possible for everyone. While gaining experience is important, each rung on the ladder to professional success should come with a living wage and respect. It seems that a modern form of oppression and exploitation has evolved through unpaid internships, where unpaid labor is taken advantage of as a way for companies to freely consume one’s labor power and time in order to make a profit. 

Research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2024 found that students who take part in paid internships receive more job offers and higher salaries than those who participate in unpaid internships. They have a higher starting pay as well, the average starting salary being $68,000, compared to the $53,000 starting salary for unpaid interns. The institutionalization and normalization of unpaid internships is deeply problematic, and reflects the widening gap between high and low-income classes in America. 

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts is making strides toward closing that financial gap through their Opportunity Awards that started in 2024: $2,000 grants to students doing unpaid internships to assist their career development in an impactful way. 

Niara Knox, a second-year BA/BFA culture & media and photography student and recipient of the award said, “I’m lucky enough where I don’t have to work a job. But if I did, and I had to work more hours than I currently do, I wouldn’t have time for an internship that doesn’t pay me. And you miss out on experiences because you have to support yourself.” 

She added that companies aren’t “hiring the best people they could” because the unfairness results in a lack of diverse talent, as mostly students of high socioeconomic status are able to work unpaid internships. This results in underrepresentation of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who tend to be people of color. 

MacDonald encourages students to frame their coursework and part-time job experience in terms of concrete skills, to build a stronger resume. She also highlights the importance of networking: “People talk about networking all the time and usually it’s such a negative connotation … networking is just meeting the same people over time because you share the same interests. And it’s genuine; it’s authentic.” She adds that meeting one-on-one with the Career Center can help with resume-building. “We want you to know how to tailor it and to make it strategic so that it tells the narrative that you want it to tell and will help to open some of those doors.”

Unpaid internships contribute to the uneven playing field of the workforce, and building a strategic resume can help students secure a job. This repackaging of capitalism to extract free labor is more common in the arts, and instead of addressing the issue, it’s justified with the glamorization of working with a renowned company, and compensated with connections and network-building. 

Obligated productivity occurs when students are given false hope that working for no compensation is a valid exchange if they have a rare chance to further their career. Companies need to be held accountable and realize that hard work should be valued and appreciated. The fight for abolition of unpaid internships is not a battle won overnight, but a long war that requires advocacy, social justice, and economic equity to be placed at the forefront.