A friend of mine has been looking for freelance writing jobs, but has been coming up empty. The only available positions involve hours of copyediting work and no salary. That's right. You work a lot of hours and don't get paid for it. People sign up for these jobs, because they can put the job on their resume and perhaps get a reference when a real job opens up.

The equivalent in academia is adjunct teaching. Excuse me, while I hack up a goober of bile.

Apparently, these unpaid jobs are increasing and may even be illegal. 

Rob Farley writes that these unpaid jobs benefit rich, trust fund kids.

Let’s be clear; the unpaid internship effectively excludes a wide
socioeconomic swath from gaining useful experience and making effective
connections in business, government, and NGOs. For example, it was
utterly impossible for me to even consider an unpaid internship as an
undergraduate; paying the bills was difficult even with loans and full
time work. Lots of young people lack significant parental support, and
require minimum payment to have any hope of making ends meet. Moreover,
even for those with support the “payment” for unpaid internships
(connections, experience, and recommendations) often has no lasting
effect on the intern’s job prospects. If you’ve ever wondered why DC
NGOs and journalistic organizations are dominated by Ivy Leaguers, it
ain’t just because they’re smart.