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Comment by caseysoftware | Hacker News Reader

A few reasons:

First, they're unionized. Understandably, the union is against unpaid labor of any kind. It sets a precedent that is more problematic than anything.

Second, we have a Federal minimum wage. You're not allowed to make less than that in a job. Therefore they would have to be paid something to still be in compliance with the law.

Finally, while one person can go into an office without incurring massive costs, if you have an entire office come in, then you need to make sure receptionists, janitors, kitchen staff, parking attendants, etc are on the job.

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"First, they're unionized"

Only about a quarter[0] of federal workers are unionized. It isn't even legal for many to do so.

[0] http://www.federalnewsradio.com/204/3203888/Amid-widespread-...

Also, more than a third of that quarter is postal workers.

Unions have nothing to do with it. Neither do costs. It's the law.

How do interns work? (In the general sense of compliance with the minimum wage statute.)

Paid internships are generally above minimum wage. My lowest paid internship was $10/hr, highest was $15/hr. Interns, however, are not legally supposed to be doing production work or run-the-business kind of work. They're there as a learning experience similar to a classroom. They can do project work and attend meetings.

Interns generally aren't classified as workers. They're getting experience in exchange for their time. The employer can't immediately gain from an intern's work. As long as the employer follows the guidelines of the intern regulations, they don't have to follow minimum wage or pay the intern at all (similar to how students don't get paid by their university for attending class).

Unpaid internships are illegal[1]. Unless you are the government, in which case you exempt yourself from the law.

[1] http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

Is there actually an exemption for government interns? You didn't cite that part of your post.

Your link says: There are some circumstances under which individuals who participate in “for-profit” private sector internships or training programs may do so without compensation.

Which is directly contrary to the point you cite it to support.

Until recently, interns slipped through the cracks somehow. A recent court decision determined that interns actually aren't magically exempt from the law just because they're interns, though, so expect a lot fewer unpaid internships from now on.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/unpaid-internships-jeopardy-a...

The determination wasn't new, that was just a high profile instance of a successful suit.

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