bit what the department of labor can and should do in enforcing some of these unpaid internships jessica fink was fortunate that her unpaid internship provided her with valuable training and my current intern sat i'm definitely learning a lot and getting experience writing cross releases and doing a lot of communications work that. i would get other places however even though this internship is legal it fuels a bigger problem growing economic inequality after all those who take unpaid internships depend on financial support from their family they end up with a significant career advantage over those who can't afford to work for free when congressional internships become the standard way to get your foot in the door to working on the hill and then working on the hill becomes the way that you influence laws including those around labor. you end up with a system of lawmaking that doesn't reflect society as a whole instead it ends up reflecting the people who can afford to do those unpaid internships to begin with since glass keys more than twenty lawsuits challenging unpaid work have been filed