When Mikey Franklin, 24, was job-searching this past January, he noticed that almost nobody was looking for full-time employees. What employers wanted instead: unpaid interns. Three years earlier, Franklin had a fulfilling unpaid gig at a left-leaning political action committee, but things were different now. He was married and couldn’t afford to work for free.

Frustrated, Franklin decided to co-found the Fair Pay Campaign, a grassroots effort that officially launches on Labor Day to “end unpaid internships in America.” The message is simple, he said: “No one should have to work for free to get ahead.”