keeping an eye on the interns

The NY Times has a short piece on the use of unpaid interns today, and it's worth taking note that there is a bit of a crackdown afoot in this area.  The entertainment business--particularly independent film production companies and much of the music industry--uses interns heavily.  Both the federal labor authorities and state agencies seem to be paying more attention to what qualifies as the legal use of unpaid labor, and the bottom line appears to be that a lot of what interns do in the film and music industries is NOT qualifying work.

It might be time to get used to filling your own coffee mug.... Food for thought.

Update on April 8, 2010 by Joe Voss

Some additional commentary on the lower levels of the production totem pole in The Hollywood Reporter yesterday:  Production Assistants Need Pay.