*1 Five participants in Hearst Corporation internship programs appeal from the order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Oetken, J.), dismissing on summary judgment their claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§201 et seq. Affirmed.*2
DENNIS JACOBS, C.J.Five participants in internship programs offered by defendant Hearst Corporation (“Hearst”) sue for minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). At issue is whether the unpaid interns were “employees” of Hearst for the purposes of the FLSA under Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., 811 F.3d 528 (2d Cir. 2016). We affirm the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Wang v. Hearst Corp., 203 F. Supp. 3d 344 (S.D.N.Y. 2016), for the reasons stated in Judge Oetken’s thorough opinion.IThe question is whether Hearst furnishes bona fide for-credit internships or whether it exploits student-interns to avoid hiring and compensating entrylevel employees. The factual record is voluminous and advances multiple narratives, some of them contradictory; but the following essentials are undisputed.Hearst maintained dozens of internship programs with its various print magazines. Each of five named appellants worked at one time as interns in one of these programs. These internships were unpaid, carried no expectation of eventual full-time employment, and required intern candidates to receive prior approval for college credit to participate. No intern alleges that Hearst promised compensation or a future job.The interns’ individual experiences varied, but there are groupings. Four of the appellants — Alexandra Rappaport, Erin Spencer, Matthew Wagster, and Sarah Wheels — were enrolled in college during their internships. Rappaport, Spencer, and Wheels completed their internships during the summer between academic years, and Wagster interned (with Esquire) during his fall semester. Lead plaintiff Xuedan Wang interned for one semester between her graduation from college and the start of her graduate program in the Fashion Marketing program at Parsons School of Design. Each intern received prior approval for
