Those internships that do pay tend to be on the lower end, making them a bit of a luxury move for students or recent graduates who can afford to work for minimal pay to enhance their resumes or gain ground at a new company. Some internships are a graduation requirement. The debates surrounding internships are as old as the very concept of internships, but they're fresh on the minds of North Texas students following a recent post by Denton music venue Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios.
On Nov. 25, the venue announced a new spring internship position. "Do you consider yourself part of the creative class? Are you a student at one of Denton’s surrounding universities? Enjoy creating promotional content alone in your room? Then you may have a place on the RGRS Team!" reads the post, which details duties such as: "You can create fliers, videos, reels, .gifs, slideshows, interpretative dances … whatever medium conveys the spirit of the event you are promoting."
“We wanted to bring in younger, new people to help with promotion for the younger music and musicians and stuff that when they come here and play, they don’t really have a marketing team,” says Chad Withers, the general manager of Rubber Gloves.
The payment for the internship is $100 a month, according to the post, plus a perk: "During your internship you will be on the guest list with a plus one for every show. You must be in attendance to have a plus one."
Since posting the announcement, Withers and Rubber Gloves have been criticized on social media because critics argue they can afford to pay an intern more than what they’re offering. Withers says he will not back down from the original post and says it is meant to be an internship, not a job.
The announcement was put up on Facebook, Reddit and Instagram. Most of the backlash came from Reddit, where Withers used his username, chadwick_witherspoon, to post the announcement in the Denton subreddit.
The posting says that the position is for a social media intern who will be responsible for creating three social media posts each week starting Jan. 1 and ending May 31. Withers says Rubber Gloves wants “creativity to happen,” and that there is no specific expectation of how these posts will be executed or designed.
At $100 per month, an internship will pay a total of $500 when completed. Critics on social media argue that the pay is too low considering the amount of social media posts required per week.
Reddit user Paskettichef commented on the announcement, estimating that pay for each post would amount to $8.
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Withers says he didn't want an intern to do the work for free so he listed the pay at $100 per month. He says that he made sure he was transparent in the announcement so it's clear that Rubber Gloves isn't trying to trick anybody.
“This wasn't intended to be something where we're asking somebody to come on full time and run our social media department, which is what some responses seem like,” Withers says. “It was supposed to be for someone who is 18 or 19 years old who probably has a full-time job, probably going to school and has a creative outlet who wants to get their foot into the music business.”
Withers says he wishes he could bring on an intern for a higher salary, but “it is not feasible” at the time.
Reddit user Llehctim wrote that he'd do the job but Withers should not expect much from his work.
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Another common argument brought up by commenters is that Withers should have offloaded the work to a current employee. Reddit user Visiblehand_93 claimed that Rubber Gloves has employees more than capable of performing the tasks.
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Reddit user Kev_Lass commented: "Hire an actual employee and actually pay them. If you can't afford to do so, then figure it out on your own."
In response to this argument, Withers wrote that there are already five employees designated to manage and create content for social media. He posted that two of them do both video and photography, one is in charge of scheduling and the other two are in charge of putting the musicians' information on the website and making social media posts.
“We do have paid positions that work on our social media and, honestly, if you look at any other music venue in North Texas or anywhere else, you'll see that reflected in the content and promotion that we do,” Withers says. “Most venues suck when it comes to their social media presence, and we really try to build a robust one here in order to help promote what we're doing here and get people to watch live music.”
According to the Texas Young Lawyers Association and the State Bar of Texas, intern pay depends on the Fair Labor Standards Act. This means an intern’s role is primarily focused on education and their work is nonessential to the business. However, the FLSA notes that if an intern is required to work a certain set schedule, they would need to earn the minimum wage in the state in which they reside. Texas’ minimum hourly wage is $7.25.
In short, if an internship is mainly educational and flexible, it may not be required to meet minimum wage standards. But if the workload is structured around a specific work schedule and deadlines, it's more likely to be classified as an employee role, thus triggering minimum-wage obligations.
Withers says that because there are already other social media-designated employees with specific tasks, an intern would have the creative liberty to do what they want with the role. In addition to being an educational opportunity, he says the Rubber Gloves internship provides a chance to build connections in the music industry.
Most of the criticism, Withers says, comes from “ill-informed people being assholes and being keyboard warriors." With more than 20 application emails in his inbox already, Withers says he is not backing down from the post.
“If the person who gets the internship wants to go on Reddit and make a post about how we're abusing them, or their horrible experience, then they're more than welcome to,” Withers says. “But I have a feeling [that] whoever gets it, it's going to be a lot of fun [for them] and it's going to be a great experience.”
