New research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found widening disparities among students who work at unpaid versus paid internships based on their race, gender and parents’ education.
The report, “NACE’s 2019 Student Survey Report,” looked at the differences between paid interns, unpaid interns and those who have never participated in any internships. Responses from 3,952 graduating seniors were analyzed from Feb. 13, 2019 through May 1, 2019.
Of the respondents, Black students made up 6.6%. However, only 6% of Black students held paid internships while 7.4% worked as unpaid interns, according to the research.
In terms of racial disparities, “White students are overrepresented in paid internships and underrepresented as unpaid interns. Hispanic-American students are overrepresented in the group of students who never have an internship. Lastly, multi-racial Americans are overrepresented as unpaid interns and of those who have never had an internship,” the report said.
“At this stage, it’s just nice to document these disparities so that the field can know for sure that these disparities exist and then we can start changing things to reduce these disparities,” said Dr. Joshua Kahn, assistant director of research and public policy at NACE.
Gender gaps were also highlighted in the research. Women accounted for 74% of the sample and made up 68% of paid internships and 81% of unpaid internships, according to the report.
Additionally, parent’s education also played a role in the types of internships students received. For first-generation college students, who made up 22% of the sample population, 19% held paid internships while more than 25% never participated in an internship. Additionally, students with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree were more likely to have a paid internship, the research said.
