Companies offer paid and unpaid internships for many reasons: building their talent pipeline, training and educating potential hires, testing whether potential hires are a good fit, and enhancing their ties to colleges and universities as well as the local community.
When done well, internship programs can enhance employers' recruitment and retention efforts, as well as employee satisfaction.
To achieve these positive results, it's crucial that HR professionals and supervisors understand the legal obligations that apply to paid and unpaid internships. State and federal laws regulate when interns should be considered employees and therefore entitled to minimum wage, overtime pay, workers' compensation and other protections.
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Be Mindful of Legal Compliance with Unpaid Interns
SHRM | May 2023
Internship Programs Help Small Companies Find Employees
SHRM | Nov 2022
April is National Internship Awareness Month
HR's role concerning internship programs depends on the situation. If an organization has no internship program, then HR's first task is to convince upper management of the wisdom of establishing one. Making that case will entail coming up with some specifics on organizational needs, wages, hours, policies, legal issues and metrics.
Employing Interns
SHRM Toolkit (contains a wide variety of resources)
Model Work-Study Internship Program
Intern Evaluation Form
Student Evaluation Form
Intern Hiring Policy
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Creating an Internship Program
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USDOL
Child Labor
elaws Advisor: Youth Employment
Youth & Labor
Youth Rules!
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State Child Labor Laws
State Labor Laws: Employment/Age Certificate
US DOL
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