Key Facts

• The first Back-Bench Bill by the MP took three and a half years before adoption.
• Research by the Sutton Trust found that nearly half of current undergraduates believe the pandemic has negatively affected their job prospects.
• 61% of employers offering work experience had to cancel placements at short notice due to the pandemic.
• The current system relies on young people self-reporting unpaid internships suspected of illegally not paying the minimum wage.
• Half of young graduates are unaware that unpaid internships in most circumstances are illegal under existing rules.
• There is a risk that short-term placements could be caught by the proposed Bill if they exceed 20 days with one employer.
• Since 2007, HMRC investigations have led to only 15 successful prosecutions for national minimum wage-related offences.
• There have been no prosecutions relating to internship cases despite more than 150 complaints from unpaid intern workers.
• A six-month unpaid internship in London costs a single person £6,300 and in Manchester £5,300 just to cover living expenses.
• The Sutton Trust found that up to 50% of employers believed most unpaid internships were legal.
• The W4MP website generally does not accept adverts for unpaid work.
• There are currently seven cases at various stages of criminal investigation involving underpayment of the national minimum wage.
• HMRC has issued seven labour market enforcement undertakings this year.
• Since 2007, 15 employers have been successfully prosecuted for underpaying the national minimum wage.
• The Social Mobility Commission and Sutton Trust expressed concern about unpaid internships as barriers to social mobility.
• The Sutton Trust report “Pay As You Go?” recommended legislative changes for internships longer than four weeks to require payment of at least the national minimum wage.
• Matthew Taylor’s review of modern working practices in July 2017 argued that clarifying the interpretation of the law and encouraging enforcement action by HMRC is sufficient without creating a separate intern status in employment law.