When you are or are not entitled to minimum wage as an intern

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Transcript

00:00Hello my name is Amber Owlett and I'm a journalist specializing in education.

00:05The Labour government has previously pledged to ban unpaid internships but in

00:09many cases working interns are already entitled to be paid the national minimum

00:13wage. But UK education charity the Sutton Trust says that many recent graduates

00:18are still report that they are taking unpaid or underpaid internships and it's

00:24calling for the government to tighten the reins on the practice. Here is when a

00:29student or intern is and is not entitled to minimum wage. According to

00:34official government guidelines employers need to pay at least minimum wage if the

00:38intern can be classified as a worker. This means that they're completing work

00:42or a service for the company. If they've been promised a work contract in the

00:46future while interning there they're also classified as a worker. However

00:51students completing an internship as part of a higher education course don't

00:55have to be paid minimum wage. The same goes for school work experience

01:00placements for young people of compulsory school age. Volunteers doing

01:05work for a charity or a fundraising organization also don't have to be paid.

01:09Finally if you're considered to be just shadowing an employee at a workplace and

01:14only observing them and not doing any work yourself their employer doesn't

01:18have to pay you.