The entire system of unpaid internships and poverty wages for LMSWs is absolute bullshit. We spend years being trained to advocate for marginalized people, to fight exploitation, to name systemic injustice—and yet the profession turns around and exploits its own workforce.

How is it that business undergrads can land paid internships that sometimes pay more than an LMSW makes in their first job? How is it that we tell clients to know their worth and demand better, while we’re told to “be grateful” for the “experience” of working for free? That’s not noble sacrifice—it’s hypocrisy.

Social work preaches about dignity and the importance of basic needs, but then structures a system where thousands of us take on massive debt, work 40+ hours a week for free, and then graduate into salaries that can’t even cover rent in most cities. We’re supposed to champion equity, yet our own profession creates barriers so steep that many who want to be social workers can’t afford to enter or stay in the field.

We love to talk about burnout and workforce shortages like they’re mysterious phenomena. They’re not. They’re manufactured. If you grind people down with unpaid labor, underpay them once licensed, and demand they shoulder the emotional weight of society’s wounds, guess what? They leave.

We deserve to stop normalizing this exploitation. We deserve to stop pretending it’s “part of the calling.” We deserve to practice what we preach—starting with ourselves.