Featured in Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program: Beauty school students are not entitled to wages - that was the conclusion reached by federal judges in two different cases where the students challenged the practice of serving salon customers in a clinical setting.
In both cases, the Court held that the students had not proven that the educational benefit they received was outweighed by the unpaid work they did, and they therefore did not qualify for minimum wages and overtime. Unpaid internships are under a lot of scrutiny right now by the Department of Labor and in the courts. Employers need to make sure that any internship programs meet the federal FLSA requirements and any state requirements.