Introduction
Typically, to get a job in the zoo and aquarium industry, one needs to
gain experience by volunteering or completing an internship. Internships
at nonprofits like zoos and aquariums are often unpaid \cite{p2010}.
Nonprofits compensate unpaid interns with college credit and experience.
However, unpaid internships are inaccessible to students from low-income
households, as they require a second, paid job to pay for their food and
housing. If unpaid labor is a key requirement to gain entry into fields
like animal care and conservation, those who cannot afford to
participate are less likely to have careers in these fields.
An article by \citet{smith2019} outlined how unpaid internships
reinforce the racial and gender wealth gap. According to \citet{2019}, Black, Indigenous, and people of
color (BIPOC) are more likely to come from low-income households than
White individuals. This shows that unpaid internships are less
accessible to BIPOC and low-income families and create barriers to enter
fields that rely on unpaid labor.
In a 2019 survey, \citet{a2019} from the National Associations of Colleges and Employers
(NACE) found that 66.4 percent of graduates who had completed paid
internships received job offers, while only 43.7 percent of graduates
with unpaid internships received job offers. This statistic demonstrates
that paid experiences can help students get jobs more than unpaid
experiences can.
Two actions zoos and aquariums can take to create more accessible
careers are offering paid internships and creating entry-level paid
positions that do not require experience. Entry-level jobs that require
applicants to have both experience and a degree automatically screen
many applicants out of the pool.
Several facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
(AZA), classified as 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, have already
established a paid internship program. Using publicly available
financial data from AZA-accredited 501(c)(3) institutions, we can
analyze the income and revenue of facilities with paid internship
programs to determine if similar institutions can afford to pay their
interns. Tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service provide data on the
number of employees, the amount spent on salaries, primary sources of
income, and significant expenses. With this data, we expect facilities
with paid internship programs to have a greater operating budget or
higher annual net income than facilities with unpaid internship
programs.