Jackson Jambalaya

Will Obama hurt the JFP? The New York Times reported the Obama administration is cracking down the use of interns by private employers:

"The Labor Department says it is cracking down on firms that fail to pay interns properly and expanding efforts to educate companies, colleges and students on the law regarding internships.

“If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department’s wage and hour division..." Story

The Department of Labor issued a memo on January 29, 2010 stating the criteria that must be met for an internship to be a legal use of labor:

"1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the
employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close
observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the
activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually
be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training
period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to
wages for the time spent in training.
If all of the factors listed above are met, then the worker is a “trainee”, an employment relationship does not exist under the FLSA, and the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime provisions do not apply to the worker." Copy of memorandum

The memorandum explains each factor in more detail on subsequent pages. Some employers obviously abuse the use of interns but this crackdown is ridiculous as it will hurt the employment prospects for many students who use their internships to get their first job. Its more regulation and paperwork for small businesses, one more target on their backs for a trigger-happy federal government.

The irony will be if the JFP gets penalized for its well-known heavy use of interns. Ironic and pretty damn funny actually.