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Paid and Unpaid Internships Internships have become a 2: November 2014 prominent feature of the UK jobs landscape. For many professional Salary: £2 a day subsidy for food and a careers there is now an expectation Examples of unpaid internships 2-zone travel card that graduates will go through an internship (or even several Intern for MP internships) before starting a full-time Allocation and Merchandising intern Period: 6 months for high street clothing store paid role. This has led to growing Duties: administration, basic correspon- concern about the extent to which dence, diary management, fundraising, Period: 9 months internships are paid, and the impact campaigning and related tasks Duties: Collating and circulating important of unpaid internships on social Salary: Reasonable travel expenses weekly analysis, allocating stock to stores mobility. and reviewing performance, analysing Working on shopping and style desk and controlling replenishment, identify- What is an internship? for popular magazine ing opportunities and risks and helping to maximise sales, communicating with There is no concrete definition of Period: 3 months buyers and stores regarding intake and what constitutes an internship. Duties: Writing content for Shopping and stock issues However, a recent report by the Style section, tweeting, blogging, editorial Salary: Expenses paid for zones 1 and 2 Institute for Public Policy Research research, PR liaison (IPPR) points out three ways in which they differ from other forms of work experience: a professional career in the most underestimate given that graduate competitive sectors, including interns may be more likely to be paid 1. Length: Internships tend fashion, journalism, politics, law, than non-graduates. to last months rather than finance, and the charity sector. weeks, with some lasting up Because these areas are so Information on different sectors to a year competitive, employers are often able is also patchy. However, in his to offer internships as completely 2012 report on fair access to the 2. Time commitment: Interns unpaid positions. professions, Alan Milburn noted that are often expected to keep 63% of cultural and creative, 56% of the same full-time hours as Paid and unpaid internships media-related, and 42% of financial other members of staff and professional services internships Due to a paucity of good data, no advertised on the Graduate Talent 3. Work expectations: firm figures have yet been published Pool website were unpaid (p.22). Internships are not training on the prevalence of unpaid Only a fraction of all available courses. In most cases internships. The Government has internship positions are likely to interns will be expected to do estimated that there are up to 70,000 be posted to this specific board; real work for the organisation interns in the UK (at any one time), however these figures do suggest – work that would otherwise with up to 15,000 of these being the scale of the issue in particularly require a paid member of unpaid. The latter figure is based on competitive industries. staff. A recent YouGov survey a survey by the Chartered Institute of of businesses found that Professional Development (CIPD), in With a growing proportion of the the majority of those using which 21% of businesses employing population holding at least an unpaid interns reported that interns reported that interns were undergraduate degree, relevant the interns did work that was not paid. New calculations we have work experience is an increasingly useful for the business carried out using data on recent important requirement for accessing university graduates show that graduate jobs. The 2012 Milburn This shows that internships have 31% of graduate interns in the UK report noted that not only was much more in common with early report working for no pay.1 Applying general work experience seen as career jobs than they do with training this proportion to the government’s vital by employers, but that access courses or with other forms of work 70,000 figure would place the total to graduate jobs was often reliant experience. number of unpaid interns in the UK on specific experience with a given closer 22,000. However, this is also company. For example, Milburn Internships commonly represent a likely to be a significant cites figures from the Association first step on the ladder towards of Graduate Recruiters estimating 1 that: “at least half of entry-level vacancies at City investment banks Figure 1. Estimated minimum outgoings required and leading law firms are likely to be filled by graduates who have to live in London for six months (see Footnote 2 already completed work experience for data sources) with the employer” (p.21). These issues make unpaid £863 Rent internships a serious and pressing problem for social mobility. The Bills requirement to live for long periods £525 Food without an income makes this £2,784 vital route to the top professions Transport available, not solely on the basis of £710 Other talent or hard work, but on the basis of ability to pay. Total cost = £6,081 £1,199 In this Research Brief, we put a Excl. transport = £5,556 number on the cost of taking up an unpaid internship, and report the results of new polling of public unfortunately good quality data on opinion on this practice. Public attitudes toward unpaid this topic simply do not exist. internships How much does an unpaid As an alternative, we can compare In June of 2014, we commissioned a internship cost? the costs of an unpaid internship survey to investigate public attitudes Taking on an unpaid internship to estimates of individual cash towards unpaid internships. The means having to meet living costs savings. An independent living intern survey was conducted by Ipsos for many months without an income. would require at least £800-1,000 MORI through its Online iOmnibus Here we examine the minimum per month. Data on cash savings and included 1,728 adults aged 16- 2 necessary outgoings of a single in the UK are scant; however the 75 in England. person living in London, where the most recent estimates from the ING Respondents were initially asked majority of the professions served Direct Consumer Savings Monitor what they thought internships of by unpaid internships are based. (from the last quarter of 2012) put different lengths should pay. The These figures can be considered an median cash savings at £1,678. This results are presented in Figure 2. estimate of the true ‘cost’ of taking an means that the vast majority of UK These figures show that, as the unpaid internship. They give us an residents are unlikely to be able to length of the internships increases, idea of who might be able to afford to fund an independent living internship respondents are more likely to think take up these opportunities. for themselves or for their children through savings. that they should pay at least the Figure 1 estimates the minimum minimum wage (currently £6.50 outgoings for an unpaid intern Some commentators have suggested per hour). For internships of up to living in London for a six month that interns without other resources a month – close to what might be internship. The total cost is £6,081, should support themselves with considered ‘work experience’ – half with the largest expenditures being part-time work. Figures from the of all respondents reported that on rent and essential bills. A survey 2013 ONS Annual Survey of Hours internships should pay less than the of employers commissioned by and Earnings show the median pay minimum wage (though only 13% IPPR suggests that most employers for part-time bar workers (a typical thought they should pay nothing at do reimburse interns for travel part-time service job) as £6.50 per all). For internships of four months expenses. However, after excluding hour. Median weekly hours for this or longer, increasing majorities of transport costs, total outgoings group are 14.7, giving a total monthly respondents thought that interns remain at £5,556, or £926 per month. income of £414.05 – far below any should be paid at least the minimum reasonable estimate of living costs. wage. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so for comparison One way of avoiding many (though Figure 3 compares responses to this we also examined figures for not all) living costs during an question between respondents at Manchester. Cheaper rental costs in internship is to live with parents. different income levels, specifically Manchester reduced the total cost However, this further restricts for internships of 4-6 months. This for a six month unpaid internship to opportunities to young people with shows similar levels of support for £5,078 (£4,728 excluding transport families in the relevant area who paying interns the minimum wage costs). also have sufficient additional living across all income groups, with top space and the financial resources earners slightly more likely to be These costs clearly restrict unpaid to support them. In a survey supportive. There is a 10 percentage internship opportunities to those with commissioned by InternAware, point gap in support between top sufficient savings, or with access only 12% of respondents thought and bottom earners; however this to family funding. Ideally, we would that they, or a young person in their appears to be due to an increased have information on the social family, could afford to complete an proportion of those on the lowest backgrounds of unpaid interns; but unpaid internship. incomes responding that they didn’t 2 know, rather than to increased Figure 2. Percentage of respondents agreeing that internships should be opposition to paying the minimum paid at various levels, by internship length (N=1,728) wage. 100% 18% 18% 18% 18% Other interesting results from the 90% 18% Don’t know 80% 3% 1% 2% 2% 7% 3% 3% survey show that responses were 13% 4% largely consistent across genders, 70% 17% 10% 18% Internships should not pay any ages, and geographical regions.
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