Word: laborer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their work is important. Those who perform menial tasks under the auspices of an internship often receive greater prestige than those who perform the same tasks for pay. This magnification of an internship experience fails to give equal credit to those who do the same labor but need financial compensation for their work...
...mushrooming number of undergraduates partaking in unpaid internships—up from nine percent in 1992 to 83 percent in 2008—has led many, including President Obama’s Labor Department, to question the legality and the advantages of such employment. Critics argue that the rise of unpaid internships has led to increased socioeconomic disparity, as lower-income students cannot sacrifice a summer salary to participate in such programs and are thus handicapped in the later race for post-collegiate jobs...
Federal regulations that dictate which organizations can and cannot offer unpaid work do little to protect students from labor exploitation and much to deny them opportunity. Currently, an internship must meet six criteria to be legally unpaid. While most of these criteria are sensible enough, one that should be repealed is the stipulation that an internship must offer experience replicable at a vocational school or an academic institution, thus precluding a large number of industries from offering unpaid internships and limiting opportunities for jobseekers. Another worthy of repeal mandates that the employer cannot profit from intern labor. The latter criterion...
Some opponents of unpaid internships argue that only non-profit companies should be allowed to hire interns, since they theoretically do not benefit economically from their interns’ labor. While many non-profits contribute admirably to the public good, this proposal is needlessly biased against those with interests outside of the non-profit sphere. The fact that an organization may profit from its services does not make it exploitative and evil. Doctors, for example, often practice for profit...
...explosion at the Massey Energy company's Upper Big Branch mine was the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in 26 years. The U.S. is one of the safest places for the profession; last year the country recorded 34 fatalities, an all-time low, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. China, one of the world's deadliest places for mining, has seen improvements in the safety of its mines, albeit from the high numbers of accidents in past years. In 2009, 2,631 people died in Chinese mines, down from a peak of 6,995 in 2002. (See pictures...