I want to work for a civil legal services nonprofit after graduation and use PSLF, but legal services orgs are currently facing a funding crisis, and many are laying off staff rather than hiring. If I can’t find a job right after I graduate, rather than sit on my hands, I would love to volunteer full-time (30+ hrs/wk) for one of these orgs. I understand that without a job my IBR payment would be $0. But could I improve this situation even further? Could these $0 payments while volunteering count toward PSLF? As I read the CCRAA, I would not be “employed in a public service job” for purposes of making the 120 payments toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness even though I would be volunteering on a full-time basis. But what if the nonprofit were to pay me a $1 salary under an agreement to work full-time until I find a paying job? Minimum wage law violations aside, would I then be “employed in a public service job” for purposes of PSLF and be able to count payments made while volunteering full-time toward the 120?

Somebody needs to do some research about which other laws might affect how little a person can legally earn.  I’m not a labor and employment lawyer, but I know there are certain minimum wage requirements, although the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides some exemptions.

Ordinarily, there is a professional exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements, as long as the employee is earning at least $455/wk ($23,660/yr). But there is a further exception for law practitioners and medical doctors, and “subpart G (salary requirements) ... do not apply” to them. 29 C.F.R. § 541.304(d).