"You shouldn't have to pay to work": The challenges of youth entering the workforce and un(der)paid internships

Last updated on Tuesday, 30/01/2024

Currently, many young people kickstart their professional lives by accumulating experience through internships. Through this logic, it is not only normalized but expected that such work is carried out with little to no monetary compensation. I asked Lea, Balderdash, Gerben and Sara to hear their thoughts on the matter.

The barricaded gates of the job market

"If it's not really too complicated you can call me balderdash, that's a word I really like in English". I paused the voice note to make sure I had the correct word and continued playing, "I am 22 as for my background, I am Polish, just finished my bachelor's in the Netherlands, and now I am back home but looking for an internship in Geneva." Balderdash has been looking for a position there for almost 6 months with no results: "so far I've sent about 50 applications and I haven't been accepted for a single job opening". Nevertheless, she knows she is applying for positions in a competitive environment -" at least where I am looking there are 200-300 candidates per spot, so it's probably not the lack of qualifications". While she is aware of the competition, I also hear about how it is difficult to keep up the motivation when you get little to no replies, let alone feedback for the decision-making process and see no positive results coming from the time you invested in applying. Gerben was not unfamiliar with the challenges of job searching, either.

I met Gerben in the halls of my former university building, he is from the Netherlands and just graduated with his master's degree in sustainable entrepreneurship. With his 29 years of age, four completed internships and his new degree he is aiming for a full-time contract to put his newly acquired skills into practice, but things seemed harder than expected: "I sent quite a few applications and basically the primary reason they don't invite me to continue is that I have too little experience". Gerben was aware that landing his ideal job wouldn't be easy, but due to the current labour shortage in the Netherlands, his expectations were higher. While internships give a big deal of experience, Gerben's prior internships had been focused on other fields like IT, putting him back at square one. But what if square one is not where everyone starts?

Internships and un(der)paid labour - "The exception was to be paid" (Lea)

"I’ve only ever done unpaid work once, remotely and part-time, simply because I couldn’t afford it otherwise, but I have often settled for very low allowances instead of salaries because it felt like no one willing to pay was going to hire me."

Sarah (25) is North African, based in Germany and currently working part-time at a political media start-up, while actively looking for full-time work. Funnily enough, we became friends through a networking newsletter, aimed at offering positions and opportunities with a high social impact. Through our online conversations, I saw how Sarah was also aware of the difficulties in job searching, but in conversation, I learned how her list of requirements grew even larger because of the few positions that were open to non-EU candidates. "Job searching is taxing. Especially when there are bureaucratic barriers to work visa sponsorships. There’s a sea of opportunities, but only one in a thousand will have a sensible job description, ask for reasonable amounts of work experience, offer proper compensation, and welcome non-EU candidates. It feels as though the longer my job search takes, the further the finish line is and the higher the expectations become.”

High demands for experience seem to be the most complicated and common issue young people face when trying to enter the labour market. How do you get experience if to gain experience you need a job? This is where internships or other forms of unpaid work can play a crucial role. And while internships seem like the perfect solution to the much-needed stepping stone towards (well) paid positions, it seems clear that not everyone can afford to work for free.

The last person I talked to was Lea, a journalist from France. She is 27 and has mostly been working for the radio. "It is very rare to have a paid internship if you are in a journalism school in France". Lea continues her story by telling me she has worked for free a few times already, "that's the game". And while at first, she was happy to comply, she felt her work deserved to be valued.  "We can say that money doesn't bring happiness, sure, but I live in Paris, that is an expensive city." And even when she fought for fair remuneration she noticed how employers tried to get around it in many ways: "If I wanted to be paid I couldn't be employed as a normal employee, I had to be employed as an entrepreneur". A choice which would in turn reduce the amount of responsibilities that the company should have towards their employee.

A good conclusion is to be found in Sarah's words: “Unpaid internships promise you access to the job market because you will gain “experience”. While it is true that you will have more work experience, many employers don’t consider internships, paid or not, as work. “It perpetuates a cycle of exploitation because they get to save money by not paying or underpaying you, and refuse to hire you for paid work until someone else does it first. Another way in which unpaid internships are unfair is that if they’re unpaid, you obviously still have to pay your bills somehow. And when you’re from a working-class or financially disadvantaged household, you can’t afford to partake in this rich kid sport. Meanwhile, peers with more resources are virtually unaffected by the lack of remuneration and can advance their careers with more ease because they’re not being held back by a very real barrier that others are."

It's this strange in-between that Balderdash talks about when starting your professional life. Where unpaid internships put you in a situation where you are already working but unable to sustain yourself. And while she remarks that she was lucky not to be in a position where she was dependent on her own income, it did mean that choosing to be an intern was an investment of time, energy and money. Later on, this situation would make her question her worth and that of her efforts: "It often made me feel like my work isn't worth much or anything close to anything". And when she finally did get paid, she was not necessarily grateful for the money itself (since it was not much, to begin with) but for the symbolic meaning of the remuneration. Her work had financial worth.

So, is experience worth the hype? In short, yes. "If you can't afford to have these experiences, of course, you are losing something" (Lea). Because it's through these positions that you not only gain experience but also a network and knowledge on the work field you are interested in, giving you leverage that you wouldn't have access to otherwise. Making such positions valuable and giving them legitimacy, justifying and normalizing the lack of financial compensation.

To ban or not to ban?

On 14 June 2023, the European Parliament officially voted to ban unpaid internships. The implementation of this ban is still only at the start of this process, but it could mean that a shift in the ‘playing field’ lies close. As we have learned, unpaid internships can only exacerbate inequalities. One must be privileged to gain certain experiences that will later land them a great job with a high salary. Those who can't afford to work for free are the real bearers of the consequences. And while the ban can be a great step toward improving the current employment and financial situation of youth, it raises several other issues. So, what do these young people think of it?

"In my opinion, they should be banned, but I also realize there should be a delicate balance. Because if you would say that unpaid internships will be banned altogether, perhaps companies would not want to hire any interns at all" says Gerben. He also mentions how this can have a spill-over effect, in which acquiring experience will become even harder.

"At some point I feel like you can't just think that giving experience to people is a way to pay them" Lea says, coinciding with Sarah's previous point. Internships can get you far, but we also need to recognise that people's work has value. However, for people like Lea and Balderdash, the answer is more nuanced. "You have to have a minimum, at least you shouldn't have to pay to work" (Lea). We often forget that certain opportunities go paired with economic investments (think of travel expenses or living costs in a certain area) money you invest in this opportunity should be equal if not lower than the payment you get.

In summary, at the very least, the work needs to be sustainable. A change at the policy level is nonetheless needed since individuals cannot easily challenge these systems. According to Sarah, it's a complex problem, "at a systemic level, it is an economic battle between you and your potential employer: they need to extract the most value out of you by assigning you the most work possible and paying you the least amount they can get away with, while you want to be fairly compensated and be assigned manageable workloads. Advocating for yourself can jeopardize your livelihood, and staying quiet jeopardizes your mental health. It doesn’t mean employers are bad people, but that the system we’re in, capitalism, sets us up for conflict, resentment, and exploitation."

Lessons learned

"It's quite an emotional journey I'd say, to learn to cope with your emotions and your expectations and also the fatigue and the difficulty to motivate yourself after being rejected so many times. You need to learn not to take it personally" (Balderdash).

Starting your career path can be daunting, especially when reading these stories. The pressure, the need for money and the systemic inequalities are all tied to this subject. And it's how normalised these circumstances have become that remarks what the real issue at hand is. We need to keep fighting for systemic changes (in and out of policymaking) that can help improve these circumstances for young people. Meanwhile, it is important to shed light on the issue and care for ourselves throughout this process. Lea used to say yes to everything "but now with some years of experience and a little burnout I understood that one must be careful not to accept everything. You have to protect yourself".

Policy change is necessary, and addressing the challenges of un(der)paid work is crucial. Banning unpaid internships could be the way to start. Nevertheless, it seems that this problem lies beyond the difficulties of finding a job and the normalization of non-remunerated work. The real issue lies in the inequalities and how the capitalist system makes us dependent on money and by extension on our work: it's clear that "in the capitalist system, money is something you have to think about" (Lea). 
Volunteer positions, internships or even short-term projects can all teach us valuable things for the future, but there is one thing I believe you should not forget, like Lea says "your work has value".

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Meet the authors

Daria Yune Elizarrarás Veenstra

My name is Daria Yune and I grew up in a world of contrast. Quite literally. I was born in Mexico City and in 2019 I moved to the Netherlands to study LAS. Raised between two opposite cultures I always felt different per default, no matter the context. Though with time I have also come to appreciate living in the 'inbetween'. The experiences and people in my life have taught me how to constantly find different perspectives in what I do. I have developed a passion for languages and for finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. On my spare days you can find me writing slam poetry or organising a climate protest. 
 

This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission cannot be held responsible for it.