Ah, it's that time of year again. The trash on the sidewalks on Manhattan smells just as gross as the mice and cockroaches that crawl underneath it. The humidity is so high that the weather app definitely is lying to you. The subway's underground, suffocated air makes your skin hum with sweat. The sun doesn't set until after 7 p.m. You spend your weekends eating ramen burgers at Smorgsaburg. And you find yourself as an unpaid intern yet again.

Unpaid internships are still in the news. A quick Google search of "Unpaid Internships" reveals quite the interesting result. A website, Unpaid Interns Lawsuit, was created in order to connect with students or individuals who have held an internship in the past six years, even if school credit was received.

"Unpaid interns are becoming the modern-day equivalent of entry-level employees, except that employers are not paying them for the many hours they work," the website states. "The practice of classifying employees as 'interns' to avoid paying wages runs afoul of federal and state wage and hour laws, which require employers to pay all workers whom they 'suffer or permit' the minimum wage and overtime."

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an unpaid internship is only lawful in the context of an educational training program, when the interns do not perform productive work and the employer derives no benefit. “If the employer would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the interns not performed the work, then the interns will be viewed as employees and entitled to compensation under the FLSA.”

This law firm's quest of defeating the evils of unpaid internships is not singular.

Former interns of the powerful Hearst Corporation charge a lawsuit against the company, saying their time was work, not education. The charge is led by Xuedan Wang, Ohio State graduate, who worked over 40 hours at Harper's Bazaar as an unpaid intern. But here's the catch: Her work did not relate to her education.

Hearst had a different perspective when it moved in late January for judgment in the suit, arguing each plaintiff’s internship provided them with an opportunity to learn about the magazine industry. It noted that many received academic credit from their schools for the internship.

The company argued that the academic credit provided by the student's school/university was enough to fulfill the requirements laid out by the Second Circuit in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight.

Earlier in 2015, three unpaid interns, Eric Glatt, Alexander Footman, and Eden Antalik sued Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., and Fox Entertainment Group, Inc., for violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law.

The court set forth a non-exhaustive list of considerations, and directed that none of the considerations are dispositive. The factors include the extent to which (1) the intern and employer understand that there is no expectation of compensation; (2) the internship provides training similar to that which would be given in an educational environment; (3) the internship is tied to the intern’s formal educational program; (4) the internship accommodates the intern’s academic commitments; (5) the internship’s duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning; (6) the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern; and (7) the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.

However, the group of former interns, from magazines from Cosmo to Bazaar, argue that the work they did made them indistinguishable from other employees, besides the fact of no compensation. Also, the requirements set by the Second Circuit encompassed more than just relating academically to the student.

Rumor has it that Hearst is only accepting interns from a select list of schools. Schools like New York University and Fordham University are no longer on that list. Only time will tell if the internship program at Hearst will follow the bumpy road like that of Conde Nast, resulting in underpaid freelancers.

Most recently, Seton Hall University students Katie Wolchko and Josua Siegal petitioned to end the internship requirement at the University, contending that they are paying the university for the unpaid work they do during internships. Featured in the Washington Post, students like Siegal don't buy the argument made that if school faculty is involved, there is a cost that needs to be covered, which is through students paying for credit.

Seton Hall officials say they understand that students are concerned about costs, but that the school must cover the expense of running internship courses.

Still, four majors at the university have internship requirements, and this is expanding and under debate for other majors, according to director of the school's career center, Reesa Greenwald. The cost can be avoided by students picking up an internship during the school year, but the cost can not be avoided during the summer term, a time when most students have the time to intern.

Despite lawsuit after lawsuit, to huge companies like that of Hearst, companies continue to boast unpaid internships for credit. The worst part is if a student wants to do an unpaid internship during the summer, the student will have to pay, out of pocket, to register for additional summer credits. Essentially, some students are paying to intern, as in, they are losing money to work.

A casual stroll through a resource like NYU's Wasserman Center, an online forum of jobs and internships posted from various employers and companies, can show that words like "For Credit," or "Stipend," are in abundance.

Unpaid internships force students to weigh pursuing professional, resume-building opportunities with the economic reality of needing to pay to be a student with multiple expenses like housing and tuition. Especially since most internships tend to be in locations that have a high cost of living (like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and New York City).

But even further, unpaid internships create a negative sentiment for potential employees in the future. By forcing entry-level work on unpaid students, the odds they will return for a paid opportunity is unlikely. Think of those former Hearst interns; the bitter taste left after 40-hour work weeks is not something that is going to go away, even with a finalized lawsuit.

Not only will paying interns be beneficial for the intern, it will be less risky for companies. Paying interns minimum wage will cost more money for companies than utilizing the lucrative educational internships for academic credit, but would it really be saving money if it just creates a risky legal road that could warrant expensive lawsuits?

While some bigger companies that look great on a resume and have a competitive applicant pool might continue get away with not paying their interns, the evidence remains that unpaid internships do not have a positive future, analyzing the lawsuits against companies like Fox and Hearst.

Ideally, unpaid internships make sense. They cut costs for companies while allowing students to build up their careers outside the classroom, while still taking advantage of opportunities that will also boost their higher education pursuits. But even as the last few months display, there are too many legal loopholes that create a crash course for disaster and conflict, on both sides. Unpaid internships are harmful to companies, students, and other entry-level positions.

Overall, unpaid internships do not just create a dangerous situation for the unpaid interns, they also create a problematic puzzle for companies. Minimum wage sounds a lot better than a six-figure lawsuit that takes months to settle.