In the United States, we should have the right to sell our labor for whatever price we choose.
Tell that to your p*mp!
My pimp? No one owns me. I’m debt free. If I wanted to take a year of from work to pursue a passion, I could easily live off of my savings (albeit modestly). I doubt that I would ever do so, but I’d like to know that the option is there - wouldn’t you?
Relax, just kidding… I worked few unpaid internships during my unemployment days, one of which helped me in landing a full time job. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I had to do whatever I can to get my foot in the door. In current environment with surplus supply of business grads, Level 1 pass wanna-be BSDs and even experienced finance guys looking for work, employers are exploiting the talent pool in whatever way they can.
This is actually quite a sensible view of the topic.
In my experience, the main difference between Joe Random making $60,000/yr and Joe Wall Street making $360,000/yr, is that Joe Wall Street was at some point able to get his foot in the door at an investment bank.
Just pay the interns hourly and by minimum wage… if you still can’t afford them, then cut their hours back to like, say, 3 hours a day.