Near the end of the Colorado legislative session last year, one of Democratic state Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet’s interns revealed something she had been holding inside for months: A male lawmaker had been harassing her.

The Kansas State Capitol building, Topeka, 2015; Wikipedia Commons

According to the then-18-year-old intern, who did not want to be named out of fear it would harm her job prospects, the male lawmaker’s unwanted comments and glances bothered her so much she stopped going to the Capitol. The experience led her to turn down another position in the Statehouse, and to drop her political science major.

The #MeToo movement has revealed a long-standing culture of harassment in state legislatures. Since October, about two dozen male state lawmakers have resigned, said they will resign, or been forced from their leadership roles after being accused of harassment or assault.

As legislative leaders grapple with how to create a safer environment for everyone, legislative interns remain among the most vulnerable and the least protected under workplace harassment laws.

In most states, unpaid interns — in legislatures or other workplaces — aren’t considered to be employees and therefore aren’t protected against workplace sexual harassment under the federal Civil Rights Act.

Some legislatures have sexual harassment policies that allow nonemployees to file claims to the legislature of sexual harassment against legislative staff and lawmakers, according to a Stateline review of policies from nearly all states. But only a handful of states specifically mention interns, and even when they do, that doesn’t necessarily give them legal standing for filing a civil lawsuit.

“The legislative policy could be used to discipline a legislator maybe, but probably doesn’t do anything for the victim,” said Minna Kotkin, director of the Employment Law Clinic at Brooklyn Law School.

In an effort to protect interns in all workplaces, at least seven states enacted laws between 2013 and 2015 that made all unpaid interns “employees” under the law.

This earlier movement began after a New York City judge in 2013 threw out a case in which an unpaid TV intern said a supervisor had assaulted her. The judge said because the intern wasn’t an employee, she wasn’t covered under the state’s civil rights protections.

State lawmakers at the time said the case revealed a loophole in the law concerning protections for unpaid interns. But the movement to pass this type of legislation has died down in the past couple of years, leaving unpaid interns in most states unable to collect legal damages for workplace harassment.

The lack of protections for young, unpaid female interns worries some advocates for women in politics, such as Erin Hottenstein, founder of Colorado 50-50, a group that tries to get women elected in Colorado. Women are more likely than men to take unpaid internships, according to a recent study by Intern Bridge, a national consulting group, and women also are more likely to be victims of harassment.

These women may be less likely to stay in politics if they experience harassment, Hottenstein said. And while most male lawmakers are well-behaved, she said, the culture needs to change.

“I find it very disconcerting to be encouraging women to run for office knowing that they are going to go into a cesspool where they may not be safe,” she said.

No Clear Protections

While there has been pushback about using unpaid interns, the practice is still common in governments and legislatures.

Whether interns qualify as employees, and therefore have legal protection against workplace harassment, depends on many factors. An intern is more likely to be considered an employee if she is guaranteed pay during the internship, or a job after her internship is over, or performs work normally done by an employee, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.

An intern who receives academic credit in exchange for her work is less likely to be classified as an employee with the normal workplace protections.

In Kansas, for example, college students who participate in a legislative internship program run through the University of Kansas receive academic credit as well as a $600 stipend for their twice-weekly work in the Capitol.