Controversy: February 2012 Archives

Overworked Intern Sues Hearst

The way we use interns may soon change pending the outcome of an upcoming lawsuit. Xuedan Wang, who interned last Fall at Harper's Bazaar, is suing Hearst for "violating federal and state wage and hour laws by not paying her even though she often worked there full time."

The lawsuit could become a class-action suit on behalf of the hundreds of unpaid interns Wang and her attorneys say Hearst Magazines--publishers of Cosmo, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, O The Oprah Magazine, and Marie Claire, among others--consistently employ.

As the economy has struggled, magazines have relied on unpaid interns for getting much of their work done, especially for over-taxed staffs churning out multiple versions of magazines for multiple formats.

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