2Assuming an unpaid internship is mutually beneficial and entered into freely by both parties, should such arrangements be illegal? And should scarce government resources be spent on trying to police the large and growing number of unpaid internships? I have my doubts.

3A former intern at the Hearst Corporation, Xuedan Wang, recently sued the company, claiming that her unpaid internship violated federal and state law. In addition to making specific allegations against Hearst, her lawsuit faults unpaid internships in general for a whole host of evils, including declining opportunities for paid employment. But unpaid internships are more a symptom than a cause of economic weakness. They are so popular right now because many employers, large and small, simply don’t have the ability to create new, full-time, paid positions.

4The lawsuit against Hearst claims that unpaid internships exacerbate class divisions, because some people can afford to work free and others cannot. But the same could be said of almost any opportunity that allows students from wealthier backgrounds to enhance their human capital more effectively than students from less privileged backgrounds. The lawsuit asserts that unpaid internships indirectly contribute to higher unemployment. But minimum wage laws themselves, the laws that unpaid internships sometimes violate, arguably have the same effect.

5In the end, the status quo, while imperfect and inconsistent, may not be that bad. Let the government largely look the other way on unpaid internships, but leave existing prohibitions on the books, so the most egregious violators can be individually sued. This would deter some of the worst abuses while preserving the educational, mutually beneficial unpaid internships that I and so many others have experienced.