Work, ethics & social mobility
Is it ethical for companies to use unpaid internships as a form of labour?
LNAT Section B · Founder's essay plan
The essay question
Is it ethical for companies to use unpaid internships as a form of labor? Discuss the implications for young professionals and the job market.
The plan
Is it ethical for companies to use unpaid internships as a form of labour? Discuss the implications for young professionals and the job market.
Stance: Against (unpaid internships used as labour are unethical). Jurisdiction: UK/EU with comparative US notes. Word budget: 750.
Definitions (precise, stance-aware)
- Unpaid internship: a time-limited role where a firm extracts productive work without wages. (Purely observational job-shadowing with no deliverables is training, not an internship for this essay.)
- Form of labour: tasks that contribute to the firm's outputs (research memos, design assets, data cleanup, social-media runs), not mere observation.
- Ethical: consistent with dignity (Kant), fairness (Rawls), and non-exploitation; compatible with equal access and undistorted markets.
- Young professionals: entrants to the labour market for whom internships materially affect employability.
- These definitions foreclose the dodge ("it's just learning") and focus on productive work without pay.
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