The Set It and Leave it Alone Minimum Wage Act of 2015 (Signed)

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Sponsored by: Yankee

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Sorry, I missed this

Senators a vote is now open on TNF's amendment, please vote aye nay or abstain

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Given that inflation means 15 dollars in atlasia is less than 15 dollars in america, this shouldn't lead to too many redundancies, and will also lead to a much improved standard of living for millions of people.

On balance (which is what all minimum wage choices must be decided upon), AYE

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By a vote of 5-2-1 TNF's amendment has been adopted

Aye: Bore, Lief, SWE, TNF, Cranberry

Nay: Yankee, Cris

Abstain: Windjammer

Not Voting: BK, Polnut

(Polnut's vote was too late)

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Senators have 36 hours to object to TNF's amendment

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TNF's amendment has been adopted

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Ah, sorry about that

Senators a vote is now open on TNF's amendment, please vote aye nay or abstain

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Aye

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By a vote of 7-2 TNF's amendment has been adopted

Aye: Bore, Cranberry, TNF, SWE, Polnut, Windjammer, Lief

Nay: Yankee, Cris

Not Voting: BK

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Senators have 36 hours to object to Polnut's amendment

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Yeah, the problem with unpaid interns isn't necessarily that they are a bad thing for the students themselves. If they were then no one would apply. The problem is they are only accessible to people who have families who can support them which is, especially when you consider many of these internships are in areas with ruinous accommodation costs, a very small percentage of the population. Add in the fact that some sort of internship is now becoming almost necessary to get into some fields and unpaid internships are basically discriminating against the poor.

It's the same reason why MPs should be paid. There is nothing wrong, in principle, with MPs not drawing a salary because they feel it to be some sort of civic obligation, the problem comes with the large groups of people who can't afford to not draw a salary.

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The problem with interns being paid less than the minimum wage is not that, in most cases they might be getting a bad deal - in plenty of cases they will have calculated that it is worth being paid 5 dollars an hour in, say, a law firm because in their future career they will earn far more because of the internship. The problem is that by having a really low wage only those with rich backers can afford to take them. And in fields where an internship is vital to progress that means the poor are forced out.

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I echo Polnut's suggestion.

No one is doubting that internships with less than the minimum wage can be good for the intern, the problem is that those internships almost necessarily exclude poorer students.

If there is some way of using a tax credit to fund some non profit internships and government ones, while keeping the same standards on other internships I'll support that.

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If it gets called "volunteering" instead of an "unpaid internship" would it still be illegal or no?  Or is the distinction that things done for academic credit have to be paid?   

I suppose the distinction is that you should not be paid less to do the same job as others, and companies should not be able to rely on you as basically another employee but one who gets paid less.

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No. It is quite possible in principle at the very least to go through university without your parents funding anything. In the UK and almost certainly in Atlasia the grant and loans you get from the government varies with what your parents earn, and they are aid back as a percentage of your income once it hits a certain point (26 000 I think). This is nothing like that. The problem with internships is that many jobs now all but require one and seeing as they can't be accessed by people whose families can't afford to support them - there being no funding or generous loans - the poor are shut out.

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As has been repeatedly emphasised here, no one is saying that internships are in all or even most cases are bad for the individual doing the internship.

The point which has been made again and again is that many poor people simply aren't able to work for free, thus unfairly denying them entry to a field. Frankly the idea this would be bad for social mobility is rather silly. Not only are many internships the result of family connections, internships will be concentrated in expensive urban areas, disadvantaging the rural poor above all.

That said, we can compromise here. Perhaps by allowing unpaid or less than the minimum wage internships of a week or something in certain fields?

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Before we finish with this, should we include a waiver for internships which last less than, say, a week?

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I am proud to sign this bill improving the lot of atlasian workers, trust the DoIA under Secretary Barnes to enforce this sensitively and fairly, and look forward to a further bill dealing specifically with internships.

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