Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) reversed her policy last week of not paying campaign interns after 16 unpaid interns and three paid field organizers signed a letter earlier this month threatening to strike unless they were offered compensation for their work.
Jayapal's campaign caved to their demands last week. It responded to the letter by agreeing to start a program to pay 12 interns an average of $18 per hour plus ORCA public transit cards, which satisfied the interns, according to Crosscut.
The letter focused on what has become an accepted reality among people concerned with equity: that unpaid internships create a privilege bias, with upper class and often white young people more able to participate than those who cannot afford to work without pay. Still, many politicians continue to rely on the unpaid labor of interns in search of experience, including some who acknowledge the harms of the practice.
According to a 2017 study by a group in Washington D.C., Pay Our Interns, 32 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans paid their congressional interns. In response, the Democratic National Committee promised it would start providing a stipend for interns.
The Senate also approved a measure to pay their interns last month, appropriating $5 million in the fiscal 2019 legislative branch appropriations bill markup.
Jayapal currently has 21 interns working on her campaign. Her plan was to originally hire several paid fellows in addition to unpaid staff, but her campaign will now retain 12 paid interns. While her campaign's practice of unpaid interns is not unusual, her unpaid interns and paid field organizers argued the congresswoman's practice of not paying interns contradicted her pledges to lift up young and diverse voices working on her behalf.
"The exploitative conditions of our labor differ so drastically from the supposed principles of this campaign that we can no longer, in good faith, continue our work without a critical reevaluation of the conditions of our compensation," reads the letter, which was obtained by Crosscut.
"It is contrary for Rep. Jayapal’s campaign team to stand by its unpaid internship program while also preaching that the field lacks racial, gender, economic or geographic diversity," the letter continues.
Several of the interns wrote testimonials, saying they believe in Jayapal and that they wanted to work on her campaign because of her "community organizing."
"She is not only one of the very few politicians I would ever work for, she is a role model in terms of community organizing," wrote one intern.
The intern added she works two others jobs in addition to the campaign and that she did not believe she could continue her internship without being paid.
"As a first-generation American, as a person of color, as a womxn, I have been told to accept that unpaid labor is merely another necessary step to ‘making it’ in this white patriarchal society. I refuse to comply with those terms," the intern added.
The interns had three demands of Jayapal in the letter: Compensation for transportation, to be paid at least minimum wage, and to be reimbursed for "expenses already invested."
After receiving the letter, the Jayapal campaign responded swiftly by meeting with the unpaid interns to discuss their demands, according to the campaign's spokesperson.
"[The campaign was] transitioning to include a mix of paid fellows and unpaid interns when our interns sent a letter raising their serious concerns. Staff immediately met with the intern team to work with them on a solution, leading to a decision to implement an expanded paid internship program," the spokesperson said. "We opened 12 intern positions which are each paid $750 a month for 10 hours per week, as well as made ORCA transit passes available for all interns. We believe this is among the highest number of paid internships in any campaign."
The interns' letter came just a few weeks before Jayapal's Aug. 7 primary. She is expected to win her reelection bid easily in November.