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.