Early this month, on February 1st, a former unpaid intern for the Hearst Corporation's fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar filed a lawsuit against Hearst. The intern claims she was as an unpaid intern but was forced to work as a full time employee without being compensated for her work, thus violating federal and state wage, hour, and tax laws regarding the proper classification of interns vs. workers.

What's more, the intern and her attorney's are seeking to make her claim a class action lawsuit involving a range of Hearst properties and hundreds of potentially misclassified interns.The crux of the lawsuit is that interns are being used to do work for the benefit of the employer rather than work that centers around a "bona fide educational experience", with this definition only understandable in connection with a series of guidelines and standards as promulgated by the United State Labor Department, thus leading to the direct violation of a variety of labor and tax laws. 

Penalties against employers in such cases can be immense, featuring not only unpaid wages, but also the unpaid federal and state taxes such as FICA, FUTA, and more.

If you think your organization may be running afoul of labor and tax laws as it applies to misclassifying your workers and/or interns please do not hesitate to seek out competent counsel on this matter. Or seek to educate yourself further on this issue as it will cost your organization far less to address this issue proactively rather than waiting until it is too late. Finally, note that such issues are a core competency of TIR Consulting LLC - either via a subscription to our TIR Answer Center, project-based consulting services, or our unique in-house seminars customized to your specific needs (and providing three months of post seminar question and answer support from attorney's experienced in handling these matters).