By Bruce MacLellan, FCPRS, APR, LM
It’s apparent to everyone that equity and access to opportunity are enormous and growing issues in Canada. The barriers facing young people, including those from diverse and racialized communities, are also significant. Most recently, we can add soaring rent costs and the highest inflation in over a generation to the challenges.
We in the public relations profession can consider ourselves among the more observant of social trends. It’s a part of our job, after all. Unfortunately, in Canada, a significant barrier to access within our own industry has been overlooked for too long. While we consider ourselves a fair and principled group, we are not always showing fairness to public relations students in internship roles.
For three years now, I have been working with other senior leaders in Canadian public relations on a very simple goal - interns must be paid a fair wage.
The unpaid internship is an exploitive practice that screens low-income young people out of our profession. It is classic exploitation by the employer in a position of power over a student with no power. In an age of rising tuition and living costs, unpaid internships mean that only students from comfortable backgrounds can persevere. As we all work together to understand and eliminate systemic racism, the unpaid internship must be on the list for change.
As you can tell, I feel strongly about this situation. It sends a very poor message to a young person that their first experience in our industry is the expectation to work for free. I'm proud to be a veteran public relations practitioner, but we can't allow a few organizations in our industry to continue this practice. In addition to the issues already mentioned, let's also think about the gender wage gap, as the majority of young public relations practitioners are women.
Unpaid internships have no place in the public relations profession in Canada and they should be eliminated.
A group of us involved as advisors with the Bachelor of Public Relations program at Humber College in Toronto have set an ambitious goal of eliminating unpaid internships. We believe all employers should pay the minimum wage or the equivalent amount in an honorarium. We are educating employers who may not understand. Students remain free to pursue other experiences through volunteering with causes they support or that hold career interest, but an internship placement for a certificate or degree granting program should be paid.
When compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, Canada lags in tolerating unpaid internships.
In the United States, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) issued a comprehensive statement on the ethical treatment of interns almost 10 years ago, while the PR Council in the UK has committed to completely eliminating the practice of not paying interns.
In Canada, the Canadian Council of PR Firms (CCPRF) has a very clear position on the issue – interns must be paid. A group of us made sure this was added to the organization’s Code of Ethics in 2015.
Unfortunately, while unpaid work is generally illegal, most provinces allow it if the internship is tied to a college or university program. The rationale is usually that employers are “doing students a favour” by providing them experience or helping them meet their graduation requirements. But it is a regrettable decision to decide not to pay young people for their work. It goes against basic workplace practices. In what other instance do we hold people accountable for their workplace performance without providing any monetary compensation?
In 2021, the board of the Canadian PR Society unanimously supported the following statement developed by the CPRS Advocacy and Ethical Public Relations Committee: "The Canadian Public Relations Society calls on all those organizations who employ public relations students and interns to ensure they are properly compensated for work performed either by meeting the minimum wage standards in their region or providing an appropriate honorarium."
Now, we need sustained education to employers, encouragement to colleges and support for our students.
I hope you will join me and offer your time to the CPRS Advocacy and Ethical Public Relations committee as we develop and deploy a communications plan to advocate for students and the reputation of public relations. To volunteer, please contact Julie Rogers, chair at
Julie.rogers@princegeorge.ca
Waiting for more information should not cause any employers to delay. Please do the right thing, for fairness, equity and inclusion, and pay your interns.