The Art Institute of Chicago, home to a world famous collection including Vincent Van Gogh’s The Bedroom, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, and Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, fired all of its trained volunteers and guides last month, who were mostly older white women.
Image Source: tripadvisor.com
Until their firing, the Art Institute had more than 100 docents, 82 of whom were active. The volunteers trained twice a week for 18 months, done five years of research and writing, and participated in monthly and biweekly trainings.
The Art Institute’s executive director of learning and engagement, Veronica Stein, emailed them all to fire them. Officially, the museum explained that it decided to remove the mostly white group of unpaid volunteers as part of a “multi-year transition” to a “hybrid model that incorporates paid and volunteer educators.”
In Illinois, an employer cannot fire an employee based on that person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, marital status, disability, military status, sexual orientation, or pregnancy. However, it’s not that such protections extend to unpaid interns or volunteers. In 2015, however, Illinois did extend workplace protections against sexual harassment to unpaid interns.
In California, Volunteers Cannot Be Harassed or Fired for Illegal Reasons
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act protects even unpaid interns and volunteers from illegal harassment and discharge. An employer can terminate an employee, volunteer or intern for anything except for race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, age (over 40), mental disability, physical disability, sex, gender, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, and military/veteran status.
Image Source: thedali.org
According to FEHA’s Unpaid Interns and Volunteers section, it is unlawful for an employer to:
“Discriminate against a person serving an unpaid internship or other program providing unpaid work experience in the selection, termination, training, or other terms of treatment of that person on any protected basis (section 11009)(e).); or
Subject unpaid interns and volunteers to unlawful harassment (section 11019(b).)”
But What If You Were Never Actually An “Unpaid Intern” At All?
Here’s a scenario California interns rarely consider: what if you can sue not just for wrongful termination, but for every hour you worked as an “unpaid intern” because you were misclassified as a volunteer when you should have been a paid employee the entire time? California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement maintains strict rules determining whether an unpaid internship is actually legal, and most for-profit companies get it wrong.
Under California law, employers must submit comprehensive internship program descriptions to the DLSE showing that the internship primarily benefits the intern through structured educational training, not the employer through productive work. California Labor Code Section 1194 establishes that minimum wage cannot be waived by agreement, meaning if your “internship” involved performing regular employee duties—answering phones, managing social media, handling customer service—you were likely an employee entitled to California’s minimum wage and overtime pay.
The practical reality is that misclassified interns can file wage claims with the DLSE to recover back wages, overtime compensation, meal and rest break penalties, waiting time penalties under California Labor Code Section 203, and attorney’s fees. A full-time “unpaid intern” working 40 hours per week for six months at California’s current minimum wage could recover over $16,000 in back wages alone, plus substantial penalties for the employer’s failure to provide proper wage statements and timely payment.
What do you think? Should unpaid interns and volunteers have the same workplace protections as paid employees?
