Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships
无薪实习的得与失

Confronting the worst job market in decades, many college graduates who expected to land paid jobs are turning to unpaid internships to try to get a foot in an employer’s door.

面对着数十年来最差的就业市场，大量原本期望找到工作的大学毕业生开始转而抽向无薪实习，以求借此敲开雇主的大门。

While unpaid postcollege internships have long existed in the film and nonprofit worlds, they have recently spread to fashion houses, book and magazine publishers, marketing companies, public relations firms, art galleries, talent agencies — even to some law firms.

长期以来，无薪实习一直是在电影圈和非营利机构存在，但最近，它们开始延伸到了时尚界、图书杂志出版业、市场营销机构、公关公司、画廊和娱乐经纪公司——甚至还有律师行。

Melissa Reyes, who graduated from Marist College with a degree in fashion merchandising last May, applied for a dozen jobs to no avail. She was thrilled, however, to land an internship with the Diane von Furstenberg fashion house in Manhattan. “They talked about what an excellent, educational internship program this would be,” she said.

梅丽莎·雷耶斯(Melissa Reyes)去年5月毕业于玛利亚教会学院(Marist College)的服装营销专业，她申请了十几份工作未果，但却得到了在曼哈顿黛安·冯芙丝汀宝(Diane von Furstenberg)时尚工作室的实习机会，这让她无比欣喜，她说：“他们说这是个多么多么优秀的能教我很多东西的实习项目。” 

But Ms. Reyes soon soured on the experience. She often worked 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., five days a week. “They had me running out to buy them lunch,” she said. “They had me cleaning out the closets, emptying out the past season’s items.” Asked about her complaints, the fashion firm said, “We are very proud of our internship program, and we take all concerns of this kind very seriously.”

不过没多久，雷耶斯就开始厌恶这段经历。她经常一周五天朝九晚九地工作。“他们要我跑出去帮他们买午饭，”她说：“他们要我清理衣橱，拿掉过季的衣物。”当被问及她的这些抱怨时，该时装公司表示：“我们很为我们的实习项目骄傲，对于所有这样的状况，我们都会认真对待。”

Although many internships provide valuable experience, some unpaid interns complain that they do menial work and learn little, raising questions about whether these positions violate federal rules governing such programs.

尽管很多实习工作都能带来有价值的经验，一些无薪实习生却抱怨说，他们做的是一些卑微的工作，能学到的东西很少，由此带出了一些关于这类工作岗位是否违反了联邦法律相关条款的疑问。 

Yet interns say they often have no good alternatives. As Friday’s jobs report showed, job growth is weak, and the unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds was 13.2 percent in April.

不过，实习生们说他们通常也找不到更好的出路。从周五的就业报告来看，就业增长幅度很微弱，而在今年4月份，20-24岁人士的失业率为13.2%。

The Labor Department says that if employers do not want to pay their interns, the internships must resemble vocational education, the interns must work under close supervision, their work cannot be used as a substitute for regular employees and their work cannot be of immediate benefit to the employer.

美国劳工部表示，如果雇主不想给实习生支付薪酬，其实习项目就必须是类似于职业指导的形式，实习生须在紧密监督之下工作，他们的劳动不能被用作代替常规雇员，而雇主也不能从他们的劳动中直接获利。

But in practice, there is little to stop employers from exploiting interns. The Labor Department rarely cracks down on offenders, saying that it has limited resources and that unpaid interns are loath to file complaints for fear of jeopardizing any future job search.

不过在实际操作中，能阻止雇主对实习生进行剥削的措施很少。劳工部很少对违例者采取措施，他们表示，劳工部的资源有限，而无薪实习生由于害怕影响将来的求职，也不太愿意提出投诉。

No one keeps statistics on the number of college graduates taking unpaid internships, but there is widespread agreement that the number has significantly increased, not least because the jobless rate for college graduates age 24 and under has risen to 9.4 percent, the highest level since the government began keeping records in 1985. (Employment experts estimate that undergraduates work in more than one million internships a year, with Intern Bridge, a research firm, finding almost half unpaid.)

没有人保留过大学毕业生参加无薪实习的相关数据，但广泛的人群一致认为，这样的实习生人数已经有大量增长。24岁或以下大学毕业生的失业率已经上升到9.4%，是政府从1985年开始有纪录以来的最高数字，而这还不是唯一的原因。（雇佣专家估计每年由本科生参加的实习工作超过100万份，而研究机构Intern Bridge发现，其中接近半数没有薪酬。）

“A few years ago you hardly heard about college graduates taking unpaid internships,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president at the Economic Policy Institute who has done several studies on interns. “But now I’ve even heard of people taking unpaid internships after graduating from Ivy League schools.”

“几年前，你几乎没听说大学毕业生有做无薪实习的，”做过好几项实习项目研究的美国经济政策研究所 (Economic Policy Institute)副院长洛斯·埃森布里(Ross Eisenbrey)说，“但现在，我听说有些从长春藤盟校毕业出来的人都去做无薪实习。”

Matt Gioe had little luck breaking into the music and entertainment industry after graduating with a philosophy degree from Bucknell last year. To get hands-on experience, he took an unpaid position with a Manhattan talent agency that booked musical acts. He said he answered phones and looked up venues. Although he was sometimes told to make bookings, he said he received virtually no guidance on how to strike a deal or how much to charge. But the boss did sometimes ask him to run errands like buying groceries.

马特·吉奥(Matt Gioe)去年从巴克内尔大学(Bucknell University)取得哲学学位之后，想要进军音乐和娱乐产业，但运气并不好。为了获得上手的经验，他在曼哈顿一家代理预约音乐演出人员的娱乐经纪公司找了一个无薪的实习职位。他说他负责接电话和找场地，虽然有时候也会叫他约演员，但对于如何谈成一份契约还有应该收多少钱等方面，他根本没有得到任何指导。老板倒是有时候会派他当跑腿买杂货。

“It was basically three wasted months,” he said.

“基本上就是浪费了三个月的时间，”他说。

Mr. Eisenbrey said many companies were taking advantage of the weak labor market to use unpaid interns to handle chores like photocopying or running errands once done by regular employees, which can raise sticky legal questions.

埃森布里说，很多公司都在现今虚弱的劳动力市场中占了便宜，利用无薪的实习生来做一些本来是由常规雇员来做的杂务，诸如复印文件和跑腿，而这可能会带来一些棘手的法律问题。

Eric Glatt, who at age 40 interned for the movie “Black Swan,” is one of the few interns with the courage to sue for wages over the work he did.

埃里克·格拉特(Eric Glatt)以40岁的年龄在电影《黑天鹅》(Black Swan)的剧组实习，他是少数敢于对他的工作提出诉讼的人之一。

With an M.B.A. and a master’s in international management, Mr. Glatt wanted to get into film after a previous job overseeing training programs at the American International Group, the big insurance and financial services company. For “Black Swan,” he prepared documents for purchase orders and petty cash, traveled to the set to obtain signatures on documents and tracked employees’ personnel data.

格拉特拥有MBA和国际管理硕士学位，上一份工作是在美国国际集团（American International Group，一家大型保险及金融服务机构）监督培训项目，之后他想进入电影圈。在《黑天鹅》剧组，他负责为定购单和零用现金记账，去拍摄现场找相关人员给文件签字，并且跟踪雇员的人事数据等。

“I knew that this was going to be a normal job and I wasn’t going to be paid for it,” he said. “But it started kicking around in my mind how unjust this was. It’s just become part of this unregulated labor market.”

“我一开始就知道这会是一份平凡的工作，并且我不会得到报酬，”他说道，“不过我脑子里开始不停地回荡一个想法，觉得这一切是多么不公正。它已经成了这个没有秩序的劳动力市场的一部分。”

Mr. Glatt filed suit, accusing Fox Searchlight Pictures of minimum wage violations. The company says it fully complies with the law and provides interns with a valuable, real-world work experience.

格拉特提起了诉讼，指控福克斯探照灯影业(Fox Searchlight Pictures)违反了最低薪酬规定。该公司表示他们完全遵照了法律行事，并且给予了实习生很有价值的实战工作经验。

“The purpose of filing this case was to help end this practice,” said Mr. Glatt, who now plans to go to law school. “That was more important than my working on the next blockbuster.”

“提出这一桩诉讼的目的是要帮助终止这种做法，”如今正计划上法学院读书的格拉特说：“这比我去给下一部票房大片工作更重要。”

Ross Perlin, author of the 2011 book “Intern Nation,” said postcollege internships used to be confined to a few fields like film but have become far more common. “The people in charge in many industries were once interns and they’ve come of age, and to them unpaid internships are completely normal and they think of having interns in every way, shape and form,” he said.

2011年出版的《实习国度》(Intern Nation)一书的作者洛斯·佩尔林(Ross Perlin)说，大学毕业之后的实习工作，曾经只局限在少数像电影业这样的领域，但现在已经普遍得多。他说：“很多行业当中的领头人曾经也是实习生，他们现在长大了，而对于他们来说无薪实习是完全正常的，他们会用尽各种方法，在各种情况下使用各种形式的实习生。”

Some interns say their experiences were quite helpful. Emily Miethner, a fine arts major at Hofstra, took an unpaid position at Gawker after graduating in 2010, doing research and social media for the news and gossip site. After two months, she moved to an unpaid internship at Flavorpill, an online cultural guide.

一些实习生说，他们获得的经验还是颇有帮助的。霍夫斯特拉大学(Hofstra University)艺术系学生埃米莉·梅瑟纳(Emily Miethner)在2010年毕业后在高客传媒(Gawker Media)得到了一个无薪职位，为这个八卦新闻网站负责资料研究和社交媒体。两个月后，她转到了“香片”(Flavorpill)，一个文化指南网站，做另一份无薪实习的工作。

The knowledge she gained at those places, she said, was crucial to her landing a $35,000-a-year job as social media coordinator at Sterling Publishing. “More than just the individual tasks that I did, it was being in a great company culture and meeting a lot of people,” she said, noting that she was able to work without pay partly because she stayed at the home of her boyfriend’s parents.

她说，她在那些地方所学到的知识是至关重要的，让她得到了如今在斯特灵出版社(Sterling Publishing)年薪3.5万美元的社交媒体管理员职位。“不仅是我做的那些工作本身，更多的是处在一种优秀的企业文化当中，还有认识了很多人，”她这样说道。此外她也指出，她之所以能够做无薪的工作，一部分原因是她住在男朋友的父母家里。

Xuedan Wang, known as Diana, did not have such a positive experience. Ms. Wang, who graduated from Ohio State in 2010, interned at Harper’s Bazaar, working 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. overseeing eight other unpaid interns who ran around Manhattan picking up items from various fashion houses and showrooms.

王雪丹（音译）的英文名叫戴安娜(Diana)，她的经历就没有那么美好了。她2010年从俄亥俄州立大学(Ohio State University)毕业后，在美国版《哈泼斯芭莎》(Harper’s Bazaar)杂志实习，朝九晚八地监督另外八名无薪实习生，在曼哈顿区到处奔忙，去各家时装店和展览室里取样衣。

She sued the fashion magazine in February, accusing it of minimum wage violations.

王雪丹在今年2月起诉了这家时尚杂志，指控其违反了最低薪酬规定。

“Harper’s Bazaar was my favorite magazine growing up. I was dazzled that I was going to be working there,” she said. “But it was real grunt work, lugging things around.”

“《哈泼斯芭莎》是我从小到大最喜欢的杂志，能去那里工作让我都乐疯了，”她说，“但那实在是低下的体力活，只是到处搬东西而已。”

Hearst Magazines, which owns Harper’s Bazaar, said its internship programs enhanced students’ educational experience and fully complied with the law.

《哈泼斯芭莎》所属的赫斯特杂志集团(Hearst Magazines)表示，他们的实习项目扩展了学生的学习经历，并且完全遵照法律行事。

Some people end up on an internship treadmill. Joyce Lee, who received a film degree from Wesleyan in 2010, moved to Los Angeles and did six unpaid internships, including one for Scott Rudin, a top Hollywood and Broadway producer.

有一些人则是进入了无止境的循环实习期。乔伊丝·李(Joyce Lee)2010年在卫斯理大学(Wesleyan University)取得了电影系的学位。她搬到了洛杉矶，做过六份无薪实习工作，其中一份还是给好莱坞和百老汇的顶尖制作人斯科特·鲁丁(Scott Rudin)当助手。

Her duties included reading scripts and picking up the mail. To pay her rent, she worked at a coffee shop and handed out fliers for a taxi company.

她的工作包括看剧本和取邮件。为了交房租，她在一家咖啡厅工作，并且为一家出租车公司发传单。

“Scott Rudin is made of money,” she said. “I don’t think it would be so hard for him to pay five interns the minimum wage.”

“斯科特·鲁丁腰缠万贯，”她说，“我觉得他就是要给五个实习生发最低的工资，也不是什么难事。” 

A spokesman for Mr. Rudin said he could not be reached for comment.

鲁丁的发言人说无法找到鲁丁对此事作出评论。

Ms. Lee, who is now in New York making her own film and supporting herself by again working at a coffee shop, said interns deserved better.

李小姐如今正在纽约制作她自己的电影作品，并且再次在一家咖啡厅工作来养活自己。她说，实习生应该得到更多。

“If I ever become a famous filmmaker,” she said, “I promise I will pay my interns.”

“如果有朝一日我能成为一名知名电影人的话，”她说：“我答应我一定会付钱给我的实习生的。”

来源：好英语网