---
title: "Getting College Credit Does Not Make it Legal to Hire Unpaid Interns"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/0c401a4d-9f7f-4b38-b0b3-6d7a805c65ad
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/getting-college-credit-does-not-make-it-legal-to-hire-unpaid-interns-2709452
category: "General"
published: 2019-03-19T19:14:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:30:47.825Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/fdaa4021d3fadb592297964236cb8f699047.jpg
---

# Getting College Credit Does Not Make it Legal to Hire Unpaid Interns

**TL;DR:** There is often confusion around whether interns must be paid, and unpaid internships must meet specific criteria. Carrie, an HR expert, has written a book on HR and leadership topics and has been featured in various publications.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-03-19. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/getting-college-credit-does-not-make-it-legal-to-hire-unpaid-interns-2709452).*

## Story

There is often confusion around whether interns must be paid.

An unpaid internship must meet all of the following criteria:

- The internship is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.

- t’s for the benefit of the intern.

- The intern doesn’t displace paid employees.

- The employer doesn’t benefit from work the intern is doing and “on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.”

- The intern isn’t promised a job at the end (i.e. unpaid “tryouts” aren’t allowed).

- Both the intern and employer understand it is unpaid.

*Carrie is a frequent keynote speaker on HR and leadership topics and regularly conducts employee training and leadership development workshops as well. She is the author of the recently published book,* Restaurant Operator's HR Playbook: Your Hands-On Playbook for Finding, Hiring, and Developing Leaders *and Implementing Organized People Systems and has been featured in* Entrepreneur*,* Restaurant News*,* Pizza Today *and* Independent Restaurateur.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- Entrepreneur (publication)
- leadership development (topic)
- hr topics (topic)
- unpaid interns (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/getting-college-credit-does-not-make-it-legal-to-hire-unpaid-interns-2709452). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/0c401a4d-9f7f-4b38-b0b3-6d7a805c65ad).