Are your unpaid interns illegal?

Given the lack of paid internships and the overwhelming amount of aspiring magazine editors, Ed can pretty much bet that every whippersnapper has had at least one unpaid internship. In fact, sometimes it seems that media wouldn't be able to survive without a bevvy of unpaid interns to transcribe, research, report, write, photocopy, and sometimes make a coffee run.

But it turns out unpaid internships may be illegal. According to the NYT, "when the jobs are mostly drudgery, regulators say, it is clearly illegal not to pay interns." States like California and Oregon have already begun fining employers for violating the law. (Ed gave his own two cents on the topic in an Ask Ed years ago). But now the federal government plans on cracking down on what many people consider to be 21st century slave labor. Even internships with college credit are not exempt.

Federal regulators say that receiving college credit does not necessarily free companies from paying interns, especially when the internship involves little training and mainly benefits the employer.

The article cites an unnamed fashion intern who "spent an unpaid three-month internship at a magazine packaging and shipping 20 or 40 apparel samples a day." Another Edster blogs about being Ivy Leagued and Unemployed after spending years as an unpaid intern during college. 

Ed admits that unpaid internships can benefit the employer more so than the intern. Good luck telling that to your employer and still getting a great recommendation...

And often, these opportunities cater to the wealthy who can afford to take a semester off from making money. But at the same time, Ed highly doubts that the magazine industry has enough money to start paying the thousands of interns it employs.

What do you think, Edsters? Do you think the government crackdown is a good thing for the industry? Share your own unpaid intern stories in the comments!