Every couple of years, the debate of the unpaid internship manages to resurface. Should they be allowed? Can they be considered illegal? What, if anything, can be done about it?

On Feb. 1, a former Harper’s Bazaar intern filed a lawsuit against the Hearst Corp., stating she deserved to be compensated for her time there, The New York Times reported:

‘According to the lawsuit, Xuedan Wang, who graduated from Ohio State University in 2010, was an intern at Harper’s Bazaar from December 2010 to December 2011 and said she generally worked 40 hours a week but sometimes as many as 55 hours. Her lawyers said that Ms. Wang, with a degree in strategic communications, coordinated pickups and deliveries of fashion samples between Harper’s Bazaar and fashion vendors and showrooms and assigned other unpaid interns to help carry out the pickups and deliveries.’

How difficult that must have been.

I’ve completed three full-time internships at three different major publications in New York City. At one, I worked for free, another I received one school credit and I received a small stipend at the third. Was it hard? Yep. Did it suck? Sometimes. Did I leave the office after a long days work to go home, cry myself to sleep and contemplate if this is even what I really want to do with my life? Absolutely. But was it all worth it? Without a doubt.

The media industry, especially in New York City, is highly competitive. What major industry isn’t? Medicine, architecture, finance, entertainment, even academia, all have sh*tty bottom floors that require interns, aching to get a foot in the door, to do all the dirty work.

Implementing a paid internship policy would drastically reduce the amount of internships available all the while making the industry less and less competitive. And the competitiveness of such major industries is the only means of weeding out people who aren’t willing to go the extra mile.

The famed quote from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ in which one of the magazine’s head editors tells the editor in chief’s assistant, Andy, that he can find another girl to take her place in five minutes will always ring true. He follows up with, ‘Be serious. You are not trying. You are whining. What is it that you want me to say to you, huh? Poor you, Miranda’s picking on you. Poor you. Wake up. She’s just doing her job.’

The lawsuit against Hearst has many publications re-examining the Labor Department guidelines, trying to determine if the number of unpaid internships is, in fact, violating labor codes. New York Magazine’s article addressing the situation stated:

‘According to the Labor Department’s guidelines, you don’t have to pay interns if, demonstrably, ‘the internship experience is for the benefit of the intern,’ the interns are not being hired in lieu of paid staff, and the employer derives no ‘immediate’ benefit.’

Did the publications I interned for benefit from my being there? I certainly hope so. How else can someone prove their work ethic, regardless of how menial the task may be. And if the environment of a major publication isn’t a big enough benefit for an intern, then it probably isn’t where he or she belongs.

The economy still isn’t great, and combined with the continuing decline of print, there is not enough money to provide interns, especially in publishing, with a comfortable paycheck. If teachers and doctors aren’t receiving what many consider a fair salary, what right does an intern have to one.

If you’re looking to make it big, you better be willing to give more than you’ll get when you’re first starting out. That means getting coffee, running errands, making copies, organizing closets and doing whatever other b*tch work your boss needs. And doing it all with a smile on your face and a song in your heart.

It’s like a teammate complaining to your coach about the practices being too difficult.

Suck it up, or go home.

Lauren Tousignant is a senior communications and rhetorical studies and writing major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at letousig@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @lauT1.  

Published on February 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm