Preventing Employer Misclassification of Student Interns and Trainees

Abstract

[Excerpt] The legality of unpaid internships has been recently examined in the media with news of Harper’s Bazaar’s former intern Xuedan “Diana” Wang filing suit against the Hearst Corporation on February 1, 2012. Ms. Wang was “head intern,” responsible for supervising eight interns in her charge. As intern to the magazine Harper’s Bazaar, she worked 40 to 55 hours weekly transporting clothing to public relations firms as an unofficial messenger service. Ms. Wang is part of a class action lawsuit against the Hearst Corporation seeking back pay for compensation of five months of unpaid labor.