Daily Front Row

2012 February 9

YOU Weigh In! Unpaid Interns...

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Lynn Yeager, Patti Wilson
RYAN MCCUNE View Gallery

A 28-year-old former unpaid intern at Harper’s Bazaar is suing Hearst for back wages (minimum!) for the 40-55 hours a week she worked gratis. Discuss!

Glenn O’Brien: I had nothing to do with it!

John Demsey: Everyone’s gotta start somewhere. Obviously, the girl is getting a lot of press out of this. But we always pay our interns!

Flora Gill, Ohne Titel: I think internships are necessary, and every single internship I did came back to me threefold later. Working with Karl Lagerfeld, and later having my own line, resulted from having unpaid internships at one point. What goes around comes around!

Patti Wilson: I have interns, but I feel so bad about having them. I’m always like, ‘What do you want to eat?’ I throw them money here and there. I always give them the option to not do the internship. I tell them they will learn something, sure, but I don’t know if it will be a lot.

Lynn Yaeger: I spent many years as the head of the union at The Village Voice, so I say, more power to her! It’s totally illegal and wrong. When I first started out in the industry, I was just terrible. I always got fired! I had a bad attitude, and I basically sucked. I was practically unemployable.

Valerie Steele: It’s not just the fashion industry. Everybody relies on interns in so many fields. Really, it’s a problem. My son was interning a year ago, and now I’m so glad he’s got a paying job.  But…when I’m hiring interns, I realize how important—and helpful—it is to know that someone can do what you need them to do because of their internship experiences.

Hal Rubenstein: If you know you’re not getting paid, you’re not getting paid! But we’re really nice to our interns.