Conde Nast Settles Intern Lawsuit For $5.8 Million

Publisher, Condé Nast announced on thursday that it had settled its class-action lawsuit brought by two former interns who claimed they were paid less than $1 an hour for summer work. The company agreed to pay $5.8 million or roughly $700 to $1,900 for former interns who worked as far back as June 2007, according to Reuters.

The two lead plaintiffs in the case were Lauren Ballinger, who worked for approximately $1 per hour organizing accessories in the fashion closet at W Magazine, and Matthew Leib, who earned around $300 for a summer internship at the New Yorker. Five months after the lawsuit was filed in June 2013 Condé Nast canceled its internship program.

The settlement agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, covers around 7,500 interns at Condé Nast magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair. The case is one in a wave of recent suits brought against media and entertainment companies that pay little or nothing for internships.

In an e-mail to employees announcing the settlement, Condé Nast Chief Executive Officer Chuck Townsend had this to say, “We believe settling the lawsuit at this time is the right business decision for Condé Nast,” Townsend wrote. “The settlement will allow us to devote our time and resources towards developing meaningful, new opportunities to support up-and-coming talent.”

Townsend also indicated that a new program for “up-and-coming talent” may be in the works in the future but did not give any details on the same.