Do Federal Unpaid Interns Need Protection from Harassment and Discrimination at Work? (H.R. 3231)

What is H.R. 3231?

(Updated October 26, 2020)

This bill would extend protections against workplace harassment and discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability to unpaid interns who work in the federal government.

While paid interns are already treated as employees and the federal government prohibits discrimination in the workplace through existing laws and policies, unpaid interns are not explicitly covered.

Argument in favor

While current anti-discrimination laws protect unpaid federal interns, they aren’t explicitly mentioned in the law. That’s not good enough, as federal interns should know beyond a doubt that they can’t be discriminated against.

Argument opposed

This legislation would change nothing at all with respect to how anti-discrimination laws protect unpaid federal interns. They’re already protected by those laws and policies, Congress doesn’t need to spend time on this.

Impact

Unpaid federal interns, federal agencies, and the Dept. of Justice.

Cost of H.R. 3231

The CBO estimates that this legislation could affect direct spending by federal agencies, but that any such changes would be negligible.

Additional Info

Of Note: According to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a sexual harassment case filed by an unpaid intern was dismissed in 1997 because the courts concluded that interns couldn’t be considered employees for the purpose of employment law.

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced this bill to ensure that unpaid interns receive the same protections against discrimination as employees:

“Unpaid interns should be afforded the same protections from sexual harassment, retaliation, and discrimination as employees. My legislation will close loopholes in the current law to ensure that all unpaid interns have the necessary safeguards to protect them in the workplace.”

This bill was passed unanimously by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has three Democratic cosponsors in the House.

• House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Press Release
• CBO Cost Estimate
• Huffington Post
• National Journal
• ProPublica
• Roll Call