Democrat Nancy Skinner has introduced a bill into the California State Assembly which would provide the same protections against discrimination and sexual harassment to interns as employees currently have. The impetus for the bill comes from a New York federal judge who ruled that an intern could not sue a company where she held an unpaid internship because she was not an ?employee?. A string of minimum wage and unpaid internship violations by NBCUniversal, Sony, and Conde Nast last summer is also contributing to the higher degree of scrutiny that politicians, government agencies, and the public are paying to internships, paid or not. The California proposal is significant because no state or federal system exists with the purpose of regulating unpaid internships.
See "Few protections, profits for unpaid interns even with first hints of reform", Jessie Lau, Daily California, February 26, 2014