Does the Odyssey take advantage of free labor?

[SaifulIslam01]

child-360791_1920This question arose for me when examining the compensation systems for theodysseyonline.com: is student work considered employment, internship, or volunteer work? The compensation for work is determined by the number of views garnered by a writer. The baseline pay is $15 for 15,000 views, a task that is easier said than done. Asking anywhere from 6 hours of work for an editor to 1 or 2 for contributors, achieving successful viewership appears problematic. In my experience, writing a good 500 word article takes at least 3 hours, excluding research and interviews. With that being said, my research drove me to answer the above question.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and many state and local wage and hour laws, the use of volunteers and interns is strictly regulated. If an individual is deemed an employee by the telegram number list Department of Labor (“DOL”) or a court, the employer must pay at least the minimum wage, and overtime pay if applicable.

What is a volunteer?
Under the FSLA, a volunteer is not considered an employee in matters of public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, and without contemplation or receipt of compensation. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) takes the position that paid employees may not volunteer to perform the same type of services for their employers that they are normally employed to perform. In other words, if the work you are performing is not charitable in nature or directly helping a person in a not-for-profit manner, you should be receiving compensation. Under the FLSA, employees may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers.