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Comment by bennysomething | Hacker News Reader

What about volunteer work? Has that been banned?

Volunteers are exempted from minimum wage requirements. But there is nothing in this job posting indicating that this is for a volunteer position.

Isn’t that clear from that it is unpaid?

Funny thing about the law right? Even beef, raised outside the US can be called American Beef if processed here.

By definition, I think working without compensation is volunteering?

If you pay someone more than $0, that’s when you need to pay them at least minimum wage.

So an interesting caveat to this apparently is [1]:

> FLSA prohibits public sector employees from volunteering, without compensation, to work additional time performing the same type of services or work for which they are employed. For example, a police officer can properly be considered a volunteer, and need not be paid, for reading to school children at the municipal library. The same officer must be paid, however, and cannot be considered a volunteer, when directing traffic for a city-sponsored road race in the same municipality where the police officer is employed.

So I guess if you already have a position in another state school, you apparently can't take this one.

[1] https://www.wardandsmith.com/articles/wage-hour-law-voluntee...

> But there is nothing in this job posting indicating that this is for a volunteer position.

This position is unpaid at a public not private employer. In this case the commonly understood meaning of "volunteer" is likely the same as the legal one.

> Volunteers are exempted from minimum wage requirements. But there is nothing in this job posting indicating that this is for a volunteer position.

The "without salary basis" looks pretty clear to me, and I'm sure someone holding a PhD could spot that as well.

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