'This is a disgrace': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams her future colleagues in Congress...

[BlueWI]

88. It would take political will to change this practice

and a belief that the labor provided by interns deserves compensation.

Sometimes there are paradigm shifts in how we view labor issues. In Wisconsin, you can pay wait staff $2.25 an hour. It benefits businesses and provides more opportunities to work as a server. But should it be legal to pay a sub-minimum wage to anyone, for any job?

The issue of unpaid internships is trending towards a paradigm shift in colleges and universities. I hear your reflecting on your own DC internship and that in your view, it's not exploitation. But that's one viewpoint and one person's experience. I would rather see multiple viewpoints on an issue like this, for someone in Congress to call attention to this practice, to assess the broad experience of many interns, and to see if more financial support for the outreach functions of Congressional offices is warranted.

Public opposition never seems like a big obstacle if Congress wants to act on certain priorities. Figure out a dollar figure for this and tuck it into an omnibus spending bill. Or call it the Making Internships Pay Act and brag about how it's creating new leaders. To me, this is one of many issues where uncompensated labor has become the norm, and there's no will to consider alternatives.