. I would pay them enough to be worth their trip to get to the training session, and also enough to purchase a lunch or drink and/or snacks if work more than say 3 hours but no more than 6 hours total. If a person works 8 hours they should be given minimum wage IMHO. Not sure why it is acceptable to have people train or work for nothing. If a person asked to be trained or to sit in on an unscheduled session or training seminar in which the person seeks out and see's as beneficial to themselves, then maybe they would be on their own, but if they are sent by a college or educational department to a location or job market for training, then I think agreements should be made prior that would assist the student in doing so..
How much is "enough to be worth their trip"? In a free market system, we can determine that by the fact people agree to take the job at a given wage. If the wage is too low, people don't take the job. If the wage is too high, employers simply won't employ people. As a result, the natural system will move the wage to the "enough to be worth their trip" level.
But you propose to enforce a wage at the Federal level for "intern". How would the Federal government know what that wage is? If they set it too high, no one get's an intern job, and if they set it to low, no one takes the intern job.
You think some government official is going to know what is the affordable wage in jobs across 50 states, from rural to urban, in low cost of living to high cost of living areas? Of course not. Only the free market can find out those wages across all areas.
. You attribute alot in my name in your post, so are you using me as a platform for your ranting maybe ? I was talking about a musician that may have been sent to the studio lets say for a training session, and how I could pitch in and help if the person needed a little help.. Now what you created out of that was quite interesting..
Your comments seemed more general than that. "If a person works 8 hours they should be given minimum wage IMHO" and "Not sure why it is acceptable to have people train or work for nothing" and "if they are sent by a college or educational department to a location or job market for training, then I think agreements should be made prior that would assist the student in doing so"
That seemed like a wider scope than what you suggest now. But ok....
I would say the same basic economic principals still apply either way. The fact is, there are some internships, which are not worth minimum wage. A great example would be the dealership I worked at. The dealership used to have 3 open apprenticeship positions.
Now they have none. Reason? Too costly. When you join an apprenticeship to be a mechanic, the dealership is effectively paying you to break cars, until you don't break them anymore. They not only have to pay you a wage to break cars, but then pay the experienced mechanic to fix what you break.
When the Min-wage was low, they could afford to do this. But now that it's $8/hr in Ohio, can't afford it. Thus no apprenticeship program.
