Why don't people understand it makes no difference if the internship is paid or unpaid? If you are working for an org other than the government or school the rules are the same. Interns don't actually exist as a class of worker and labor code is based on a 1946 supreme court decision that referenced bricklayers.

I'm being sued by a former intern whom we paid a very respectable $15/hr for part time work over the summer; she's coming after me for like $100k because she alleges I wilfully misclassified her as a contractor rather than employee.

Bottom line: I won't use ANY interns. I say blame it on the millennials and generation entitlement. Drives me out of my mind that this person is trying to get rich off the back of a start up.