Dear Holly, Kudos to you for speaking out on this issue, which, by the way, has been going on for DECADES. Some of these internships really do rely on students to commit to a sort of indentured servitude, or, in the case of some programs I can think of on "the other coast", out and out slavery. The ability to be able to survive these situations absolutely rests on fiscal solvency provided by someone else (or in the case of one comment below, a steely resolve and the ability to subsist on the chemicals found in Cup of Noodles). Unfortunately, this form of free labor extends into the working sector, where hundreds of prestigious "non-profit sector" jobs paying $32K a year (which by the way doesn't come close to paying one's meager subsistence in LA or NY....worse if you are a single parent) for a 40+ hour work week. By the way, did I mention that those gigs usually come with several pages of intellectual qualifications which had to have come through family or social connections (travel, "enrichment", dinner party conversation with movers and shakers of the day), summer programs abroad or a fancy education (more family support or lifelong, crippling indebtedness). But naturally the salary isn't in question. "You don't actually need the money, do you?" So how is the average young person, particularly one not privy to the upper echelons, ever able to climb their way to the top? No wonder we haven't heard their voices. Yes, Virginia, these days one has to be able to "afford" to work. Having a spouse who makes a decent living, or an inheritance from Aunt Clarissa will allow you to keep showing up at your classy gig, wearing the hip outfit that validates you as an arbiter of cool, and clutching your mid-morning latte as you review the latest restaurants and nightspots that continue to validate you as a cultural insider. The rest of us spend the day paying lip service to the "mission" and "the art" and our "dedication", then go home to face Visa, ever-escalating rents, the fact that you still need to eat and a car you park around the block lest it out your real rung on the economic ladder. It's not fun waking up in the middle of the night - when you're supposedly gainfully employed - in a cold sweat wondering how you're going to pay for tomorrow's parking at your exclusive artsy think tank. God forbid you mistake this "position" for work, and expose yourself as the only one in the room who actually needs this paycheck. (*Feel free to substitute "educator" for artist. Same difference.) Respect for the arts begins with respect for the artist - a living wage for performer and arts administrator alike - which would eliminate the elitism created by closing off these positions to people who are lucky enough to have other people subsidizing them. It starts with telling the real story about what survival in a 21st century metropolis requires, and setting salaries accordingly. "But the arts wouldn't survive," you say. Yes they would. Just tell Uncle Horace and his cronies to make a small monthly donation to your employer's non-profit (that way he won't have to write a larger check to you when you collapse into penury!) In this scenario, the institution is free to engage a diverse staff, pay them a respectable wage, and give all our communities a greater sense of respect. Only then will we be in the business of creating real art for the people, by the people, without the blood of the people paying the price.

One of my great regrets was having to forgo the internship track post-university. Too much unpaid time that couldn't flexibly fold around my paying job. One model for future internships might follow university work-study, which at least in my case worked very well. My work-study bosses bent over backwards to help me adapt my hours and jobs around my classes, rehearsals, etc. For a while I worked 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on an info phone line. Another job was ushering for the university movie theater--which didn't really need a full squad of ushers but it was a way to get us a badly needed paycheck. When I'd get cast, or have a workshop, or when class schedules changed, the job schedule would be adjusted. The work-study supervisors considered that their job: to make it possible for the students to earn something, one way or another. Internships could be structured more to the interns needs and less to the sponsoring organization's needs and open up to a whole new group that would be eager to step in.

It is hard to get into any field without valuable internship-like experience and hard to have an internship without financial support. Interns are learning, but they are working, too. Workers deserve income.

I have done three separate full-time internships with no additional help from my parents. They were each invaluable experiences that left me with great (paying) opportunities. While I had to work additional jobs to make ends meet, I think it's unfair to say you absolutely must have financial support to do them. I'll admit, it's frustrating at times and tiring always, but where there's a will, there's a way.

Holly: Thanks for the post and the shout out. Here is the link to the Department of Labor site that I tweeted during the convo: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs... The page lists six questions that are a "test" for the unpaid intern. How many of us held internships that would fail this test? How many now work for organizations that regularly do?- Linda