Unpaid internships are one of the most classist institutions that still exist, and they actively hinder upward social mobility.

Think about who can afford to work full-time for an entire summer without receiving a paycheck. Who pays for their food, rent, transportation, tuition, and other bills?

Usually, it is a student with wealthy parents supporting them.

Meanwhile, students who are paying their own way through college cannot spend three months working for free. They have to take paying jobs at places like Panda Express, Walmart, or a grocery store. Those jobs involve real work, but they often do not carry the same résumé prestige as an internship in a corporate office.

The result is a rigged system: wealthy students can purchase better résumés by sacrificing income they never needed, while working-class students are penalized for needing an actual paycheck.

If an organization receives productive labor from an intern, it should be required to pay them. “Experience” does not pay rent.