Pay: Zero.

Benefits: None.

Experience: It varies. Some interns acquire job skills; others run errands, answer phones, file, photocopy and deliver documents.

Chances of being hired: minimal. Some employers explicitly say that an internship will not lead to a job; most hint it might or insinuate that graduates won’t get a foot in the door without proving they’re hungry enough to work for free.

In the past five years, unpaid internships have undercut temporary work, casual work and part-time work to set a new low in the Canadian labour market.

Businesses, public institutions, non-profit agencies, media outlets (not the Toronto Star, thankfully) and arts organizations all use unpaid interns. Look around any workplace and you’ll probably find a few bright young university and college grads putting in long hours for no remuneration in hopes of improving their odds of getting a paying position.

There are no statistics on how many there are. There are no employment standards for these workers. There are no penalties for exploiting them. There is no way of measuring whether unpaid internships really open doors. And there is nowhere young people can go to complain except the Canadian Intern Association, which lacks power to do anything.

Here is what the Ontario Ministry of Labour says: “There are no regulations pertaining to unpaid internships. The Employment Standards Act regulates paid employment relationship between employers and employees.”

Here is what Youth Canada says: “Internships are a great way to gain professional working experience in a field you’re interested in. Some internships are paid positions while others are unpaid. Both allow you to work within an organization to gain first-hand experience about a particular industry or field of work.”

Here is what interns and former interns say:

“My experience has been really frustrating. I can’t afford a third (unpaid) internship, but I don’t want to sit around at home either.” — Anya Oberdorf of Toronto, who has a university degree and a college certificate, in an interview with Star reporter Marco Chown Oved. Finally, after more than a year of working for free, she landed a four-month paid internship.

“There are people who say young people expect everything right now; they expect this great-paying job. I don’t expect a lot — I would love a minimum wage.” — Heather Bellingham of Oshawa in an interview with The Canadian Press. She has held a string of internships — all unpaid — since graduating from a college program in film and television production.

“I am boycotting the system. It’s not that I won’t work for free exclusively on ethical grounds. Practically I can’t afford it.” — Bethany Horne, a journalism student at King’s College in Halifax whose blog struck a chord with struggling grads across the country.

No Canadian politician has taken up their cause. No corporate leader has said it is wrong to take advantage of debt-burdened graduates. No university president has gone to bat for young people trained at his or her institution. No economist has pointed out their generation won’t be able to pay for the health care and pensions of the baby boomers and echo boomers without a decent income. They point to globalization, demographics, skill mismatches and slow growth as the reason grads can’t get paycheques.

There is a better alternative.

Why couldn’t provincial Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi update the Employment Standards Act to establish clear rules for the use of interns?

Why couldn’t federal Revenue Minister Gail Shea require employers to pay EI premiums on behalf of interns, making at least some eligible for jobless benefits?

Why couldn’t Statistics Canada include unpaid workers in its monthly labour force survey?

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Why couldn’t the NDP, which purports to be the voice of working Canadians, stand up for those at the bottom of the heap? Why couldn’t the Liberals, who claim to speak for middle-class Canadians, offer hope to their stymied kids?

Market forces will always drive down the price of labour. But zero is too low for a civilized society.