Seasonal Hiring and Interns

For many employers, springtime is filled with gorgeous weather, brilliant new ideas, and an office full of seasonal hires reporting for duty. Recent surveys show that 55% of organizations plan to add contract talent this spring to support near-term projects.

Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers suggests that spring college recruitment has been on the rise, with 27% of interns hired during this time.

While seasonal workers and interns can provide much-needed support as projects ramp up, these short-term roles often entail unique compliance responsibilities that you don’t have to worry about with full-time employees. It’s too easy to make missteps with misclassification and inadequate onboarding, creating wage, safety, and legal risks.

As you consider how to hire seasonal employees and interns, discover ways to avoid short-term employee compliance mistakes and ensure you classify, pay, and train temporary talent correctly so they become an asset to your team rather than a liability to the business.

Seasonal Workers vs. Interns vs. Volunteers: Key Distinctions

What exactly is a seasonal worker?

A seasonal worker is a temporary employee who has been specifically hired to perform work for a limited duration of time (which the Affordable Care Act defines as six months or less).

While the term “seasonal” may define a specific time of year (such as end-of-year holidays or summertime), it may also refer to a particular time when an organization sees a surge in business activity and needs additional support to ensure smooth operations.

Legally, a seasonal worker is an employee, and you must treat them as such under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This means non-exempt seasonal workers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay.

As an employer, you are likely required to cover seasonal workers under workers’ compensation policy. However, whether they are entitled to health and paid time off benefits generally depends on your policies and specific state laws.

When learning how to hire seasonal employees, it’s important to make the distinction between seasonal workers and interns.

Per the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), for-profit companies must pay their employees. However, interns and students may not be classified as employees, which means they can legally perform unpaid work.

Using a set of intern classification rules known as the “primary beneficiary test,” the DOL distinguishes employees from interns based on who benefits most from the business relationship. If it is the employer who benefits most, the intern must be paid minimum wage as well as overtime when working more than 40 hours per week.

But what about volunteers? What classifies someone as a volunteer?

If you plan to work with volunteers this spring, there are additional compliance issues you must pay attention to. For example, volunteers cannot work for private, for-profit employers, even if they agree to do so.

Still, even in a non-profit setting, volunteers cannot perform tasks that are usually done by paid employees or volunteer to perform the same type of services that they are employed to do. It is illegal to use volunteering as a means to replace paid workers in an effort to reduce labor costs.

It’s also important to know that providing “perks,” such as stipends and gift cards, that resemble wages can turn a volunteer into an employee under the law if the situation is not handled correctly. Legally, all volunteering must be done freely, without fear of retaliation.

Understanding how to classify volunteers and workers under the DOL’s economic realities test and formalizing the volunteer relationship with signed agreements can help you avoid legal risks and ensure fair compensation if required.

Compliance Tip: Use official DOL tests to avoid misclassifying interns or temporary workers as independent contractors.

Determining Whether Interns Must Be Paid: DOL’s Primary Beneficiary Test

Whether someone can be classified as an intern (and, therefore, work without pay) depends on the results of the DOL primary beneficiary test. This test covers several factors related to the employee-intern relationship, including:

Whether there is an expectation of compensation or entitlement to a paid job at the end of the internship
Whether the internship provides training and education or it’s tied to or accommodates a student’s educational program
Whether the work complements or displaces the work of paid employees

As you figure out how to hire seasonal employees and interns, be aware that there are special unpaid intern requirements and considerations for nonprofit, government, and academic programs.

For example, federal internships may require citizenship, a background check, and security clearance for classified information. Additionally, educational institutions may require formal contracts for an intern to receive academic credit for their participation in the program.

Compliance Tip: Use the DOL primary beneficiary test to determine whether an intern can legally be unpaid.

What are Wage-and-Hour Requirements for Seasonal Employees?

All employers covered by the FLSA must ensure their employees receive a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. When determining how to hire seasonal employees, you should review your state’s minimum wage laws, as some require businesses to pay significantly higher.

Additionally, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay (1.5 times their normal wage) for all hours worked over 40 in a week. Most hourly employees are considered non-exempt, while salaried executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales workers may not be.

Under the FLSA, employers must keep payroll and collective bargaining records for nonexempt employees for at least three years.

Compliance Tip: Ensure seasonal hires meet all federal and state wage-and-hour rules.

Youth Labor Compliance (if Hiring Minors)

If you’re working with minors this spring, you must comply with DOL restrictions on hours, hazardous tasks, equipment, and scheduling. For instance, 14- and 15-year-olds can only be employed for limited periods outside school hours. Minors aged 16 or 17 can work unlimited hours, but only in non-hazardous roles.

Don’t forget to check for state-level deviations and stricter child labor protections in your area. You should also obtain the required work permits or parental documentation where needed. While not a federal mandate, many states require them for minors under the age of 16.

Compliance Tip: Review youth labor regulations for scheduling, hazardous tasks, and break requirements before hiring minors

Onboarding Essentials for Short-Term Staff

As you complete your preparations for intern and seasonal worker onboarding this spring, make sure you’re following legal requirements in the following areas:

Required documentation (I‑9, state notices, tax forms, work permits)
Safety training, harassment prevention, and EEO policy reviews
Culture onboarding and manager expectations for temporary staff

Be thorough in auditing paperwork and training material to avoid increasing your legal risk exposure. Additionally, ensuring seasonal workers and interns understand your company culture can make for smoother integration with the team and reduced time to productivity.

Compliance Tip: Apply anti-discrimination training, safety training, and EEO policies equally to all short-term employees. Make sure to maintain proper documentation and onboarding checklists for all temporary hires.

Training and Integrating Seasonal and Temporary Workers

During the onboarding process, it’s important to provide timely access to employee handbooks and communication channels. Connect new hires with their supervisor so that they can get their questions answered quickly.

You’ll also want to ensure temporary workers receive role-specific safety and job training. This helps reduce legal risks for the organization and keeps the entire team safe. Thorough temporary worker training also helps you maintain consistent standards and team cohesion across full-time and short-term staff.

Compliance Tip: All temporary workers must receive the same safety and compliance training as permanent employees.

Common Risks During Seasonal Hiring Peaks and How to Reduce Them

Misclassification pitfalls are common during busy hiring seasons. To reduce them, make sure to establish clear written guidelines defining employee, intern, volunteer, and independent contractor status. Additionally, you’ll want to train managers on the differences regarding time control, pay, and worker behavior.

It’s also a good idea to avoid rushing the onboarding process by creating a structured process that delineates specific activities for specific days and checking in with workers to ensure all activities are completed. Finally, make sure you’re consistently enforcing policies across employee types, as this is crucial for culture and compliance risk.

Compliance Tip: Conduct a quick compliance audit before each hiring season to confirm classifications and pay practices.

Hire with Confidence Using VirgilHR

This spring, make sure you’re making compliance a priority. It’s a good idea to brush up on federal and state labor laws to ensure you’re classifying and paying employees correctly and training them properly to do their jobs.

A compliance automation platform like VirgilHR can help you balance rapid seasonal hiring with the need to stay in line with the law. If you’re looking to improve your seasonal hiring process, schedule a demo to see how VirgilHR helps you hire seasonal workers and interns fully compliant.

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