A new report from the think tank Institute for Public Policy Research and campaign group Internocracy on Why Interns Need a Fair Wage spells out how UK employers almost certainly break the law with interns.

Unpaid internships are common in politics, media and the fashion industry and enable young people to get a head start in their career.

Kayte Lawton, report co-author and Research Fellow at ippr, said: “Too many employers don’t understand the law when it comes to hiring interns. There is a mistaken belief that employers can take on people on a voluntary basis if both sides agree – but that’s not what the law says. If an intern is doing work for a company, then they need to be paid – it’s as simple as that.”

Employers mistakenly believe there is a “grey area” around internships in the National Minimum Wage legislation and that they are allowed to take on unpaid interns so long as both sides know it is a voluntary position – but they are wrong. The law is in fact very clear and this is simply not the case.

Many private sector organisations offer unpaid, expenses-only internships that almost certainly could not be described as “work experience”.

Some surveys have found that only half of the organisations that use interns pay them at least the adult minimum wage. But just under a fifth of them (18 per cent) pay no wage whatsoever; and just under a third (28 per cent) pay less than the adult minimum wage.

Under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 anyone doing work for an organisation must be paid at least the minimum wage. This is regardless of how a job was advertised, what the job title is or whether there is a contract in place. Charities, voluntary organisations and statutory bodies are able to employ unpaid voluntary workers but private companies are not.

Dominic Potter, report co-author and Director of Internocracy, said: “We now have entire industries that rely on the willingness of young people to work for free. In the long run this is bad for business because it damages the reputation of these industries and makes it difficult for them to recruit from the broadest poll of talent. It also means that young people from well-off backgrounds or with good family connections have an instant advantage when it comes to finding a permanent job.”

Internocracy is a social enterprise committed to changing the culture of internships in the UK www.internocracy.org

Emily Crane