Thank you all for the kind words.
I don't want to belabor this issue any more. Let me close my involvement in this post by saying this. The primary purpose of my initial post was to respond to two comments/questions.
Cecil mentioned that he was not sure if it was legal to hire someone for free and Dr. Dave asked about rules related to unpaid interns.
For uninformed readers it is important to realize that Cecil and Dr. Dave in some ways represent the two different types of entities (for profit and non profit respectively) that I was discussing.
Cecil, as he has discussed on this forum, amongst his other vocation(s) raises fish for profit. There are many people that read these forums that work in the for profit sector of the pond goods and services world. Since Cecil specifically mentioned his concern about unpaid interns, and since Cecil works in the for profit sector, I decided I should give him (and any one else that was interested) some information related to the use of unpaid interns.
Dr. Dave OTOH works in the non-profit sector. Since Dr. Dave specifically asked about rules, I decided to give Dr. Dave a link that discusses these rules.
Let me close my involvement in this post by offering this advice:
If you are in the non-profit sector, and if you wish to use unpaid interns, there are rules that govern the use of unpaid interns. Unpaid interns can be used in the non profit sector, and, provided that the appropriate terms and conditions are met, the use of unpaid interns is perfectly acceptable.
If you are in the for-profit sector, then I urge you to tread carefully in regards to using unpaid interns. Even if these unpaid interns are being placed in your company by a college or university. Educate yourself as to U.S. labor laws and your state's labor laws (which are typically more restrictive that U.S. labor law).
