Pay your interns!

Young people are finding it harder and harder to access the labour market after graduating. Far too many young people are caught up in unpaid jobs during the day but then, in order to support themselves, take up paid night time jobs in order to support themselves. Others are stuck in a vicious cycle of one unpaid internship after another as they find it impossible to find quality, paid work.

It's simple: Interns Work. Pay your Interns.

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, working for free has become increasingly common. In certain sectors, entry level positions have been replaced by unpaid internships. In others, unpaid interns are given little learning experience. This is not a coincidence. It is the result of employers taking advantage of the high youth unemployment rate in Europe and treating young people as cheap or unpaid labour force. Unpaid internships are an exploitative, unjust and discriminatory practice. We're calling on the EU to ban unpaid and low-quality internships at an EU wide level.

Unpaid internships perpetuate social inequality. Young people who do not have the privilege of financial security, parental support or cheap housing cannot take up unpaid internships, finding it even harder to enter the labour market.

Businesses, institutions, NGOs and all other employers should pay interns for their work. Young people deserve the ability to build a prosperous future for themselves. We need laws to make sure employers don't exploit their employees.

We demand that interns are adequately paid for their work. The EU must ban unpaid internships and improve the quality of internships at an EU wide level. That is only fair.