http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/business/international/australia-challenges-use-of-unpaid-internships.html?ref=business&_r=0
This article discusses the legality of unpaid internships in Australia as well as comparing them to the United States model. While these internships are often thought of as stepping stones to dream jobs, they come at a high financial cost. Oftentimes, these internships require extremely demanding hours leaving no time for a supplementary job. Many young adults spend their entire life savings just to work for free. Currently, Australia is looking into changing internship policies. For example, the US uses a scale to determine which interns should be paid. It will be interesting to see what they decide and the economic impact these decisions will have.
If companies want to recruit the best potential employees they can then unpaid internships are going to hurt their chances. Many students such as myself can't afford to travel to and from an internship and work for free. Business could be shutting themselves out to talented prospects because of short term gains. As we learned in class, well educated employees can be more productive and increase output, which will benefit the economy.
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