美国每年有超过100万人以实习生的身份参加工作。其中约半数没有薪酬。
Alex Footman was among them, until recently. He worked as an unpaid intern for Black Swan, a film that won numerous awards and grossed more than $300 million.
直到不久前，亚历克斯·福特曼也是其中一员。他作为无薪实习生为电影《黑天鹅》剧组工作，该片赢得了多个奖项，总收入超过3亿美元。
Footman was hoping an internship with Black Swan would open doors in Hollywood. Instead, it has made him rethink his career plans. "This was six months of my life which left me nowhere further along in my career than before," Footman says. "It was not a learning experience and that was what I had expected. This really just seemed like I was just working and wasn't getting paid for it."
福特曼原本希望在《黑天鹅》剧组当实习生的经历可以帮他敲开好莱坞的大门。结果却使他不得不重新考虑自己的职业规划。“我为此花费了人生中6个月的时间，却对我的事业没有任何推动，”福特曼说，“这并非我原先期望的学习机会。实在就像是我在单纯工作而得不到报酬。”
He's now part of a open class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures, the film's producer. He and another unpaid intern, Eric Glatt, are suing to win back pay for the hours they worked. They're also filing for an injunction that would keep the company from hiring unpaid interns in the future.
他现在参与了对影片制作方福克斯探照灯制片厂的共同起诉，案件尚未判决。他和另一名没有薪酬的实习生埃里克·格莱特一起，起诉讨要欠薪。他们同时还在向法庭申请禁制令，禁止福克斯公司在将来不付薪酬使用实习生。
Footman says he filed papers and ran errands alongside paid employees. Glatt worked as an accountant who kept financial records for the production. Their lawsuit is the first case on unpaid internships in more than a decade.
福特曼表示他和正常员工一起做案头工作和一些杂务。格莱特则作为会计为影片记账。他们的这起诉讼是十几年来第一场针对无薪实习的起诉。
The Department of Labor has said that this sort of work may be illegal for unpaid interns to do. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled more than 50 years ago that only work done for training purposes could go unpaid. The Labor Department says companies began skirting the rule. Last year, it moved to issue a six-point test that for-profit internships must pass to comply with labor laws.
劳工部曾表示把这类工作给无薪实习生做可能是违法的。事实上，最高法院早在50多年前就裁定只有为培训目的而做的工作才可以不付薪酬。劳工部表示许多公司开始打擦边球。去年，劳工部采取行动颁布了6点标准，营利机构提供的实习机会必须满足这几点标准才算符合劳动法的规定。
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, pushed for that test. His organization looks at life for working-class Americans. He says the test's "essential ingredient is that it has to be for the benefit of the intern, not for the benefit of the employer."
经济政策研究所的副所长罗斯·艾森布雷是这项标准的推动者之一。他所在的机构关注美国劳工阶层的生活。他表示这项标准的“要点在于它必须对实习生有利，而不是对雇主有利。”
Representatives from Fox Searchlight declined to speak with NPR for this story, but they did issue a statement about the case. It reads in part: "Fox Searchlight internships comply with all federal and state laws and regulations." The statement also says that the company provides interns with a "valuable 'real world' business experience."
福克斯探照灯影片公司的诉讼代理人拒绝就此事接受美国全国公共电台的访问，不过他们就本案发表了一份声明。其中写道：“福克斯公司对实习生的使用完全符合联邦及州各项法律法规。”声明还说该公司为实习人员提供了“宝贵的‘实际’工作经验。”
It's this "real world" experience that Bob Yari thinks is necessary to make inroads in Hollywood.
鲍勃·雅里认为打入好莱坞所需要的正是这种“实际”工作经验。
"The film industry is an industry that's very difficult to break into," says Yari, who heads Yari Film Group, which made the films Crash and Dave Chappelle's Block Party, among others. "Internships are a way to allow the outsiders to come in and start the process of getting a foothold in the industry. I don't think they're done because [companies] don't want to pay someone to get coffee."
“电影业是很难进入的一个行业，”雅里表示，他是雅里电影集团的老总，该公司推出过《撞车》、《大卫·查普尔的街区聚会》等影片。“实习机会是使外行人得以入行并开始在行业内逐渐立足的一种途径。我不认为这是因为（企业）不愿意付那几个小钱。”
Internships have become an almost essential first step on the career ladder, says Phil Gardner, who directs the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. He says companies don't pay interns because they can get away with it.
密歇根州立大学大学生就业研究所所长菲尔·加德纳表示，参加实习已经几乎成为职业阶梯上不可缺少的第一步了。他说雇主们不付给实习生薪酬是因为他们的这种做法不会受到惩罚。
"Nobody's been called on this. And in economic times when you're cutting the bottom line and meeting your third quarter, I think the rationale is, 'Why pay anything for them?' " he says.
“没有人因为这种事受到传唤。而且在经济捉襟见肘的时期，我觉得他们的理由就是‘为什么要付他们钱？’”
Gardner says interns don't know what to expect from employers or what laws they might be breaking. Since interns hope to land a paid position, they aren't very likely to file complaints.
加德纳说实习生们并不知道自己应该从雇主那里得到什么，也不知道雇主们可能违反了哪些法律。由于实习生们希望获得一份正式工作，他们通常不太会提起诉讼。
But some think companies are just as hard pressed as job seekers in the current economy. Among them is Helana Natt, executive director of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce.
不过也有人认为在当前的经济状况下，企业面临着和求职者们相同的困难处境。大纽约商会的执行会长赫拉娜·奈特就持这种观点。
Natt contends companies just can't afford to pay interns the minimum wage. "I'm sure if they can, they would. People don't understand, when you're hiring people it take a lot of time away," she says.
奈特认为，企业没有能力向实习生们支付最低工资。“我确信如果他们付得起，一定会付。人们并不理解这点，雇人需要花很多时间。”
According to Natt, companies have scaled back human resources budgets and use internships as a low-cost screening process.
按照奈特的说法，企业缩减了人力资源的预算，而把使用实习生当作成本较低的筛选过程。
But EPI's Eisenbrey thinks unpaid internships cut costs beyond hiring expenses. He says companies have saved big-time by turning the entry-level jobs of yesterday into the unpaid internships of today.
但经济政策研究所的艾森布雷认为，使用无薪实习生所节约的成本大于雇佣正式员工所需的费用。他表示企业把过去的入门级工作变为如今不需付薪酬的实习工作，从中省了一大笔钱。
"The middle class is being undermined and the way it's being undermined is by having salaries, wages and benefits undermined," Eisenbrey says. "Nothing does that more directly than allowing employers to employ people without paying them."
“中产阶级正在受到损害，而使他们受损的原因就是工资、时薪以及福利都受损了，”艾森布雷说，“没有什么比允许雇主雇佣免费劳工更直接地造成这种损害了。”
Eisenbrey is closely watching the Black Swan case. He says a win for the plaintiffs could mean serious changes for this booming class of workers
艾森布雷正在密切关注这场因《黑天鹅》而起的官司。他表示原告如果胜诉，意味着这一迅速扩大的劳工阶层将会迎来重大改变。
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