Our Vision for the Future

Pay Our Interns is committed to ensuring all people—especially people of color and of low-income backgrounds—have equitable access to professional career paths through the implementation of paid internships across all work sectors. 

We seek to ensure all individuals of all backgrounds are represented across industries impacting their communities, and to develop pathways for advancement. 

Our plans for the next four years include:

• Building on the “Color of Congress” report by analyzing disbursement records to learn how House and Senate internship funds are being disbursed, and who is benefitting from those funds.
• Developing federal policy recommendations to address gaps between resources at elite institutions of higher education and minority-serving institutions, particularly their career services infrastructures.
• Identifying how schools and employers use academic credits as compensation for unpaid internships, and providing federal policy recommendations to make monetary compensation for internships the norm across the country.
• Issuing an independent survey to specify the type of industries that offer internships, and evaluate the long term impacts paid or unpaid internships have for students of color. 
• Creating a database of longitudinal data resources, examining students and internships by yearly cohorts.
• Developing an Ambassador Program for individuals who want to be involved in the fight for a more equitable internship economy.
• Building our donor community, to continue to provide aid and resources like the Intern Relief Fund for people who are attempting to offset the costs of an unpaid internship. 

By accomplishing these goals, Pay Our Interns will continue to create a more equitable workforce, more diverse leadership, and a more just world.