Bennet, Udall don’t pay their interns
Neither of Colorado’s U.S. senators pay their interns, but as the dog days of summer hit — which is prime time for internships — both offices say the experience makes up for it.
“It’s generally a good professional development activity because of the experience you get and what you learn and the networking you can do, on its own,” said Adam Bozzi, a spokesperson for Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet’s office. “If interns do good work here, we want to help them succeed, and whatever we can do to help, we’ll do.”
Paying interns would put a limit on how many opportunities the office can offer, Bozzi said. They typically have between 80 and 100 interns a year, most of them in Washington.
Anna Perks, a former intern for Bennet in Colorado Springs and Denver, said her year with the office was a good learning experience. She put in a few days a week during and immediately after her senior year of college during the especially tumultuous time when the Affordable Care Act was working its way through Congress.
“We took a lot of calls from that and answered questions because there was a lot of concern about it at that time,” Perks said.
Bennet and Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall have deadlines approaching for their internship programs: July 31 for a spot in Udall’s Colorado office and Aug. 15 for Bennet’s Washington, D.C., office. Both note the temporary positions are unpaid in the listings.
Alex McCarthy, a spokesperson for Udall’s office, said the office aims to hire interns with third-party stipends or who are participating in a D.C. study program. The office also works to get interns academic credit.
Bozzi said Bennet’s office works with students on a case-by-case basis if hardships might prevent them from taking advantage of the opportunity.
“If there are hardships and an intern is not going to be able to take the position because of those hardships, we’ll certainly work with the intern,” he said.
A flood of lawsuits against private companies rolled out in 2013 after it was ruled some unpaid internships violated labor laws.
The Fair Labor Standards Act lays out guidelines about whether interns must be paid or not. Key among the criteria for not paying them: The internship must be for the benefit of the intern, to the point that the operations of the business “may actually be impeded.”
Jason Surbey, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, said some exceptions exist. Unpaid internships for nonprofits and government agencies are “generally permissible,” provided the volunteer intern goes into it without expectation of payment. However, enforcement of employment rules for legislative branch employees, including interns, falls on Congress.
Most senators, or 65 of them, don’t pay their interns, according to a 2013 article in the Atlantic. Several who do pay their interns have some qualifications, such as only paying summer interns and not spring or fall, or offering a stipend or academic credit. Others only have a handful of paid slots with other interns going without.
It did not analyze intern pay for members of the House of Representatives.
Offices for Reps. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, and Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, did not respond to requests from the Coloradoan about their internship programs. Gardner is campaigning to claim Udall’s Senate seat.
Representatives for the senators said each internship office operates a bit differently, but primary among interns’ tasks are answering calls from constituents and helping with events. Those in Washington have the additional opportunity to lead tours of the Capitol and sit in on congressional hearings. Interns at hearings can help draft policy memos as well, albeit with supervision from paid staff.
“It’s a learning experience, no matter what,” Bozzi said.
Perks learned how constituent information is received and processed, and it helped her see how change happens in government — two tidbits that help with her job as zero waste field organizer and event coordinator with Eco-Cycle Inc. in Boulder. While educational, she said two grants from her college “definitely helped” during her time interning.
Perks remembers constituents yelling at her over the Affordable Care Act — and learning patience and the ability to deal with a variety of calls while paid staffers mentored her. She also wrote “a lot of thank you notes,” did legislative work on the national heritage trail and some casework.
Bozzi called interns “a great help” to people in the office and constituents but added the office would function smoothly without them.
Interns often balance their work with classes or a part-time job. Both offices said they try to be as flexible as possible.
McCarthy, of Udall’s office in Washington, didn’t respond to several questions sent via email, including if there was concern that not paying interns limited who could pursue them.
Bozzi said his office’s flexibility with financial support aims to make sure the pool is as diverse as possible. Like Udall’s office, Bozzi said he targets Coloradans.
“Generally, we try to have a diverse cross section both in economically and socially,” as well as being from different parts of the state, he said. He encouraged anyone interested to apply and not let hours or finances deter them.
Bennet doesn’t have a formal stance about unpaid internships at private companies, Bozzi said, and guessed it would be case specific.
“It would depend on the industry, what the duties of the interns are,” Bozzi said. “Businesses need to comply with the law, of course. I think case-by-case would be the way to look at that.”
McCarthy did not say what Udall’s stance is. She called their program “a professional training opportunity” and added that “many of our staffers, in fact, started out as congressional interns.”
U.S. Department of Labor’s test for unpaid interns
• The internship must be similar to training in an educational environment.
• The experience is for the benefit of the intern.
• The intern does not displace regular employees and works under close supervision of staff.
• The employer of the intern does not derive an immediate advantage from the intern’s activities and, on occasion, its operations may actually suffer.
• The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job after the internship.
• Employer and intern understand that intern is not entitled to wages during the internship.