They pretend to pay me; I pretend to work. A cautionary tale against unpaid internships.

Many students, who are dreaming of a freelancing career upon graduation, are pursuing a liberal arts degree. The skills that they are learning are in-line with the demands of the contractual labor market, which is a growing trend. In fact, according to an independent study by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk, 34 percent of the U.S. workforce is freelancing.

Unfortunately, many liberal arts internships are unpaid.

While some (not all) provide opportunities to learn new skills, most unpaid internships fail to contribute to a student’s ability to negotiate wages — a vital skill in the corporate and, especially, freelance work environment.

Generally, the more prestigious the industry is, the more likely it is to be unpaid or underpaid. Some former interns, who claimed they were paid less than $1 an hour, have filed lawsuits.

An obscure internship at a medical device manufacturing facility, for example, will pay at least twice more than a more-exciting government organization or a fashion company.

Meanwhile, students in other disciplines such as business and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) would not so much as consider an unpaid internship. A software engineer intern at Google gets more than $6,000 a month, according to Glassdoor.com. Meanwhile, an intern working at Dow Chemical collects a more modest average wage of $4,500 a month.

For MBA students, the summer between their two years of study is viewed as an interview, during which they are given a professional, sustainable compensation package.

“Intern paychecks at Wall Street banks are based on the annual salary that analysts earn,” the Business Insider reports.

If any of those interns wanted to launch a freelance career, there is no doubt they would negotiate their wages to a reasonable amount, say, $100-$200 an hour?

Tech companies pay similarly to, if not more than, Wall Street. While table tennis, a fridge stacked with free-trade granola bars and a bike-sharing program may not sound appealing to everyone, there are few who would say no to a monthly intern salary of nearly $8,200.

So, if one of the most important skills we learn is the skill of assessing our professional worth, what does a zero-dollars-an-hour compensation say about our ability to negotiate for ourselves?

Next time you consider that highly coveted unpaid internship, ask yourself how much it will increase your price or negotiating power. Also, ask yourself if the unpaid work you are doing is actually legal.

In the 2013 Eric Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. lawsuit, Judge William H. Pauley’s ruling relied heavily on the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Divison’s six criteria, which help in determining whether the internship is legal or not:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

Remember, one of the most important skills in the freelance market is knowing how to market yourself. And, a large part of that is knowing the value of your skills.