The Payoff

It's time to address the big elephant in the room, and it's name is Unpaid Internships.

There, we said it.

As our Words of Wisdom post this week illustrates so beautifully (yes, it's over there in the left sidebar, and you can Pin It to your own Pinterest page if you go to Words of Wisdom on goodfoodjobs.com): A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

We've been spending a long time in the harbor on this one, but our sails are ready, shipmates in place, and we're sailing out to sea. There may be a rough journey ahead, but our hope is to learn a lot without sinking the ship.

Okay, enough metaphors. Let's get down to business.

A lot of people ask, 'Shouldn't a GOOD food job mean that it must pay a living wage? In particular, why do you continually post unpaid internships?'

The truth is: we want these openings, paid or unpaid, to be good food jobs. We have a genuine spirit of EXPLORATION, (not EXPLOITATION) and we know from experience that opportunities that don't fork over the funds can actually be the most valuable to us professionally - they might pay dividends later on.

So that's why, when we started Good Food Jobs, we freely approved those unpaid positions that aligned with our mission. But now that we have three and a half years of experience, observation, and influence under our belts, we are hoping to use our resources to raise awareness about an issue that has become increasingly important.

To that end, we are currently implementing some changes to our Post a Job form and Job Search tools. Moving forward, if a position cannot offer an hourly, salaried, or stipend-based wage, we will no longer post it unless they CAN offer one or more of the following:

College Credit
Room & Board
Barter (for something specific like classes, products, services, etc.; in other words, simply 'experience that you can put on your resume' doesn't count)
Volunteer Opportunity (a one-time event that offers a chance to contribute and/or get involved)
Business for Sale (these opportunities are rare, but when they do come along, we think it's important to share them)
Educational Program (because even though education is hard to quantify, we believe in its value, and we are committed to spreading the word about unique opportunities to learn more about food)

We know . . . there are so many more questions . . .

But what about us - the employers that host the interns? We just can't afford to pay someone to do this position right now.

It's our genuine belief that all employees are an investment. Yes, that means that it will raise your costs, but given the proper training and guidance, a paid employee that you can retain for years will become a far more valuable asset than a revolving door of interns. Chances are if you rely that heavily on unpaid labor for long term success, then there is something inherently unsustainable about your business model.

It's also our hope that these changes within our site will encourage employers to get more creative and systematic in how they compensate employees. If you can't afford an hourly rate, how about providing a stipend over a given time period of three months or less? What products or services can you offer your intern? In fact, starting today, for those who can find a way to provide compensation to an intern where there was none before, we will offer you a FREE JOB POST. Just get in touch to give us the details and we'll send you a discount code.

Why not banish all unpaid positions? Period.

We believe that money is just one way to quantify value. It is important, for sure, but it's not the only form of compensation that can be of help to people. We are big fans of room & board and barter, as both rely on a similar idea: streamline your costs / conserve your funds while you get educated / experienced.

I wrote you about this issue. Didn't you read my email?

Yes, we did. Each and every one of them. And we are actually working on getting back to you all this week. We're so sorry for the delay. We were hard at work digesting the information, and wanted to process all of our thoughts before we answered. Sorry to keep you in the dark for so long.

But unpaid internships are just the tip of the iceberg. What about all of the other issues pertaining to the value of work?

This is just the first small step that we hope to take in tackling this conversation about the value of work. There are so many more topics to cover. What about a living wage? And healthcare? And more full-time positions? And fair labor standards? And life / work balance? And how do we grow our small food businesses without utilizing free and willing labor?

Yes, these are all questions that we will continue to ask and topics that we will continue to tackle, one at a time. When we started Good Food Jobs we didn't realize the real value was not in the job search engine itself, but in building a solid forum, in this incredible community, to bring together ideas and initiatives that will create more good jobs that will help more good food get to more good people. The 'good' and 'sustainable' pertain not just to the provenance of the food, but to the ability for all those involved in producing it to make a living.

This evolution may be slow, but our hope is that it's moving in the right direction. What are your hopes and thoughts on the matter?

Cheers
Taylor & Dorothy