It is said that hard work pays off, but in reality hard work does not always pay the bills.

Last week the Huffington Post published an article discussing the compensation of student athletes, which has been widely publicized in recent years, especially around the NCAA Tournament.

Some believe that a free education is enough compensation for student athletes, and these ideas have been explored recently through several mediums including the Netflix documentary “Schooled: The Price of College Sports” and a few weeks back John Oliver covered the topic on his late night show.

Yet, free labor from students does not only affect athletes; many high school and college students take on unpaid internships to gain more professional experience. Although unpaid internships and athletic scholarships hold many benefits, it undermines millennials’ talent solely based on the fact that we are students and therefore “still learning.”

Due to the competitiveness of many paid internships, students will often settle for unpaid ones in order to build skills and experience. Although many of us have not completed our degree, it does not mean we are not qualified to be paid, even if it is just minimum wage.

According to the internal service career logs of Southwestern University, those who had an internship during their time in school were 13 percent more likely to find a job post graduation that those who didn’t have any. And students who had completed an internship were significantly happier with their post-graduation careers than those who did not.

Many employers know that students will take on internships in hopes of getting a job after college. But the truth is, many college students are in need of financial compensation.

College tuition has increased significantly and there are other socio-economic factors that affect students’ financial stability. Some millennials might be becoming financially independent for the first time and employers should recognize that free labor cannot always be justified because it extends one’s resume.

In a 2013 study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 63 percent of students with paid internships were offered at least one job, as opposed to the 37 percent of people who held unpaid internships and received job offers. Additionally former unpaid interns were offered lower salaries than those with paid internships. This goes to show that unpaid internships cannot be justified by promising a well-paying post-grad career.

Millennials need to be recognized for their skills through paid internships because although all internships provide experience, we live in a world dominated by monetary value and we are worth getting paid. It’s not that young people aren’t paid at all, but rather internships don’t always offer the compensation that working class jobs do, and often there are loftier qualifications needed for an internship.

Opportunities for paid internships vary across industries, we must recognize that certain fields offer more paid internships than others. Typically STEM fields offer the most paid internships while social science fields pay the least. Accounting and Engineering majors are offered twice as many paid internships than unpaid ones, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. It can be argued that STEM internships require more skills than other fields which is understandable, yet there needs to be better compensation for internships all around.

Many professionals hold a bias against students, which is why athletes and non-athletes do not always receive adequate compensation. Viewing amateurs negatively affects how our work and worth are measured. Internships are important stepping stones in our careers and millennials do value unpaid internships, but we are also undervalued by them.

Laritza Salazar is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at lcsalaza@syr.edu.

Published on April 7, 2015 at 12:33 am