All internships should be paid — it’s as simple as that. Especially when you work for a program that makes a hefty profit every year, paying your interns should be the bare minimum. 

When Texas Athletics doesn’t pay its creative interns, it perpetuates inequity among those who need a paying job to live. Texas Athletics must pay its creative interns.

Throughout the month of February, Texas Athletics has been hiring for two different positions: a creative development internship in the Texas Athletics Creative Development office and a creative media internship in the Texas Football program. 

The creative development internship focuses on promoting student-athletes through social media platforms while the creative media internship focuses on a variety of camera and editing duties, according to the UT student job board. Both positions are unpaid. 

According to a financial audit acquired by the Austin American-Statesman, Texas Athletics made $200.7 million in revenue, with $22.1 million in profit in the 2019-2020 season. Texas Football made $146.8 million of that revenue and spent $41.8 million in expenses.

Therefore, it would not be a financial burden to pay these creative interns. If interns were paid a minimum of $15 an hour for six to 20 hours a week in a six-month time period, that would amount to around a $2,000-$8,000 salary per intern. That would barely make a dent in Texas Athletics’ $22.1 million yearly profit.

Unfortunately, because many internships are unpaid, students often have to choose between “experience” and pay. They should be receiving both. Programs like Texas Athletics have the money to provide pay but decide that “experience” is enough. 

This is inequitable and weeds out students who need a paying job to live. They miss opportunities to further their career in such internships, even when they are qualified. Additionally, programs are missing out on people who have talent to offer all because they refuse to give them fair compensation.

Radio-television-film junior Ruben Hernandez said he has worked at an unpaid internship in the past. He said he decided not to apply to the Texas Football creative internship because of its lack of financial compensation. 

“I got some knowledge (in my previous internship), but it still felt like I was being exploited, and I would’ve felt the same way had I applied to (the football internship),” Hernandez said.

No amount of “experience” justifies being exploited for profit. The work of creative interns in the Texas Athletics program is obviously valued enough to make the program money but not valued enough to give them a fair wage. This unfair treatment diminishes the importance of these interns’ work. 

“I feel like everyone’s craft is always worth something, even if (Texas football) doesn’t think it is,” Hernandez said.

Texas Athletics declined to comment on this matter. 

The solution is to pay your creative interns, Texas Athletics. Pay them because everyone deserves a living wage. Pay them because their work is valuable. 

It’s not like you can’t afford to. 

Cardone is a government and social work sophomore from San Antonio, Texas.