Unpaid Intern

kdigangi

We are considering allowing, at his request, a student intern (son of one of our scientists) to come in on an unpaid basis for 2 weeks during winter break to continue work on a project he started last summer. I'm pretty sure we meet the FSLA rules in that the work benefits him as much/more as the company. It's definitely a substantative learning experience for him, not grunt work. But I am concerned whether there are other issues with having an unpaid worker. I recently read something about a worker's comp problem with having workers who are not on payroll, but don't remember the details.

I really can't pay him because we've decided, as one economizing measure, not to have interns right now, and there are other friends and family who have been refused.

Can anyone give me any reasons why I shouldn't be doing this? Thanks.

rmcbrayer

Under FLSA regualtions, six criteria must be met for an unpaid internship for a for-profit private sector employer. Otherwise, an employment relationship exists under the FLSA, and the Act's minimum wage and overtime provisions apply to the intern.

Holly Jones

For more details on the DOL's six-factor test, you can reference Hillary Collyer's great article on the interpretations, which was featured in our free Hero Line e-zine earlier this year. The link to the article is [url]http://bit.ly/bKUfai[/url].

Sharon McKnight SPHR

[quote=rmcbrayer;721254]Under FLSA regualtions, six criteria must be met for an unpaid internship for a for-profit private sector employer. Otherwise, an employment relationship exists under the FLSA, and the Act's minimum wage and overtime provisions apply to the intern.[/quote]


To rmcbrayer,

I noticed this is your first post and just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Hope to see many more posts from you in the coming months.

Again, welcome.

Sharon

:welcome:

rmcbrayer

Thank you for the welcome.