Federal Regulations on Working Hours
“Apprentices must receive at least the minimum wage specified by the Fair Labor Standards Act for hours they spend working”
Only during training periods are employers in the US permitted to pay less than minimum wage to apprentices. This is the difference between most internships and an internship. Businesses on this app are most often based in the US or places with similar laws, meaning they are taking advantage of people that often already have experience and an education while opening themselves up to lawsuits from apprentices that catch wind of it.
I’ve been a part of this app for at least a year and a half. They used to make it so that apprenticeships on their site had the options to be paid (though heavily discouraged and every business rejected you). They recently changed this and force you to re-apply as an apprentice and make you agree to working unpaid if you want to use their app to connect with businesses.
There are even ‘micro tasks’ apprentices can do to get noticed doing free labor for very specific work.
Everyone deserves to be paid, even if it is low, for work that they do. I don’t care if people are willing to work for free, it’s they still deserve to be paid. And businesses HUNDREDS on this app. They’re already paying, and this app is for profit, benefiting from the free labor of people in desperate situations. And this isn’t even an internship - directly violating the law and encouraging businesses to do so is not a good look.
Maybe the app is based overseas, maybe they’re free from liability. But the businesses and those behind them are not.
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