On June 9, 2022, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided an unpaid intern who participated in a forensic photography training program was not entitled to wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In a 2-1 opinion, the Eleventh Circuit panel in McKay v. Miami-Dade County agreed that the photographer-trainee was an intern—not an employee—under the FLSA and the county was not obligated to pay her because she was the primary beneficiary of her participation in the program.
Brandi McKay is a college graduate who enrolled in Miami-Dade County’s no-cost Forensic Imaging Preceptorship Program, specifically to avoid the cost and time commitment of pursuing an additional college degree in forensic photography. The program was six months long and required weekend work. The first two weeks of the Program consisted of workbook assignments, followed by two weeks of shadowing county staff photographers. During weeks five through eight, McKay worked in the morgue taking autopsy photos, “sometimes with staff supervision and sometimes without.” McKay left the program about a month before she would have completed it. Before she left, McKay spent the remaining weeks alternating between taking morgue photos under little supervision and completing assignments in the program office.
McKay sued Miami-Dade County, seeking minimum wage and overtime payments under the FLSA, asserting she was an employee. The county...
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