Thursday, April 30, 2015

Hillary Doesn't Like Unpaid Internships, but Clinton Foundation Sure Does

The charity spent $30 million on salaries last year but not one cent on interns, unlike the Ford or Gates Foundations. What gives? - Daily Beast

Hillary Clinton may be running for president as a champion for the middle class, but the Clinton Foundation’s interns do not get paid.

“Businesses have taken advantage of unpaid internships to an extent that it is blocking the opportunities for young people to move on into paid employment,” Clinton said at UCLA in 2013. “More businesses need to move their so-called interns to employees.”

That doesn’t happen at her own business, the Clinton Foundation that Bill started in 2001.

“The Clinton Foundation makes no promises or commitments of employment after the internship,” the Foundation says on its website. “No intern is entitled to a job at the conclusion of his/her internship experience.”

The foundation goes through about 100 interns each summer, with slightly less during the school year. Summer interns volunteer 30 to 40 hours a week, while interns who work during a college semester may work 25 hours. The most some interns receive is a $2,000 stipend for a four-month period, and that depends on financial need.

Paying them all New York’s minimum wage of $8.75, for instance, would cost a fraction of the foundation’s budget...