Have you ever worked for free? Share your experiences!
If you have ever worked for free, your experiences could help spark reforms that make unpaid internships, work trials, volunteer roles and other unpaid arrangements fairer. Don’t miss this chance to make your voice count by responding to the government’s call for evidence by 9 October 2025.
If you're performing meaningful work that benefits an organisation, even if it's labelled as an unpaid internship, trial, volunteering or something similar, you may legally be entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW).
The government is concerned that some workers who are entitled to the NMW may be placed in roles where they are expected to work for little or no pay. They are particularly concerned about exploitative unpaid internships that are not genuinely part of an educational or training course. Note, there are some specific internship arrangements where the NMW may not be due.
The government want to do more to protect workers. To support this, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement has launched a vital call for evidence to help them better understand the impact of these unpaid arrangements and to inform future government policy steps.
If you are currently, or have previously been, involved in:
- An unpaid or low-paid internship
- An unpaid work trial
- Voluntary or volunteer roles that may overlap with work
- Work shadowing
…then your first-hand insights will be invaluable.
Submit your views online via the official questionnaire—or email them directly to [email protected].
The call for evidence closes at 11:59 pm on 9 October 2025. It can be found on GOV.UK and also contains a handy summary of the law in the various areas. The government press release explaining more about their commitment to tackling unpaid internships can be found on GOV.UK.
