Didn't they rules these illegal earlier this year? Or does that only apply to CA, since it was a federal appeals court? I have to imagine that the Supreme Court will weigh in on this in the near future. I'm conflicted. I think it's bullshit to have an intern doing menial work that a janitor or copy boy should be doing. In that sense, they aren't interns at all. However, I always have students that want to volunteer in my lab every summer, and I usually accept one or two. They don't generally get paid, but they seem happy to have the work. On the other hand, they are learning lab skills and how to conduct everyday science. It is inescapable sometimes that they do what probably wouldn't be classified as "learning". To have to separate the learning from the mundane, and pay them for one and not the other, would be incredibly difficult.