Internships in Australia – Sacrificing $6000 in wages and working an average of nine weeks without pay

Young Australians slogging through unpaid internships are sacrificing $6000 in wages and working an average of nine weeks without pay.

A new report by advocacy body Interns Australia found nearly 90 per cent of interns work for free or below the minimum wage.

Interns spent an average of 45 days doing unpaid work, which translates to $5913 in wages if the intern was earning the national minimum wage.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Exploited interns forfeit an average of $6000 in wages

From the report :

Most internships are undertaken outside education or training

This survey indicated that the 90.66 per cent of respondents had completed at least one internship. 40.35 per cent were undertaken as part of formal education. 59.65 per cent were undertaken outside study. For employers to comply with the Fair Work Act, roughly the same number of people who completed an internship outside their studies – 59.65 per cent – should have been remunerated. Only 12.72 per cent of internships were remunerated, suggesting that most unpaid internships are completed outside the bounds of the Fair Work Act. Recent case law dictates that when an internship is not undertaken for course credit, interns must be paid.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Interns Australia 2015 Annual Survey