Welcome to the wonderful world of working for no pay.

Economists say there is value in unpaid work but that wage-free labor is more costly for those with higher consumption commitments. "The fact that the wage is zero doesn't mean that compensation is zero. Usually, you gain something," said Columbia professor of economics Till von Wachter, referring to training, experience, and contacts. "The downside is that workers need to finance their living somehow."

According to the National Association of College Employers, whose members mostly include large firms that recruit on campus, there are 22 percent fewer paid internships and 21 percent fewer full-time hires for 2009 graduates. NACE also reports that students who previously sought full-time paid positions are seeking internships instead. For these new graduates, competing for the big zero isn't easy, and site likes One Day, One Internship help postgrads navigate the choppy waters. One Bowdoin graduate, who claims unpaid internships are "the next big thing," laments that she "can't seem to get one."

University of California-Berkeley graduate Jonathan Hung endured an internship at a social media startup in San Francisco before volunteering his Web developer skills at a children's hospital. He was hired a month later. "Being unpaid sets up this psychological barrier from the get-go," he said. "It's not all about the money, but honestly it is. What's the motivation?"

The economic crisis has business schools scrambling to help students find opportunities. Aaron Gray, a 2009 Harvard Business School graduate who worked for Fandango and VC firm Greycroft Partners, is an unpaid consultant for startups Gazelle and TokBox while he looks for full-time, paying work. "I am helping them figure out how to make money or add value through their business models," he said.

Value is a word that echoes through the chambers of U.S. business, and its meaning—along with the meaning of work—is changing. In Silicon Valley, short-term business models, such as iPhone and Facebook applications, are increasingly commonplace. As a result, experts say, VC firms often make smaller, quicker investments. Companies that previously would have received $500,000 in seed funding and an additional $500,000 in Series A funding are now on their own until they boast revenue.

More and more, investor groups like Sand Hill Angels hunt in packs, requiring companies to jump through the requisite due-diligence hoops, according to Debby Hindus, an alumna of MIT's Media Lab and Paul Allen's Interval Research. Hindus describes it as a funding compression that mirrors the salary compression. "This model favors companies with a certain kind of risk profile, companies that are a lot further along than those we used to associate with angel funding," said Hindus, who advises—yes, for free—companies that are looking for funding.