Howdy,
A friend from church has a daughter who is an ID major. She has an interview for a paid internship for the summer. What is a good hourly wage she should request.
Thanks for the help.

Can she ask her friends what they are making for similar internships? Alternatively a canned "I'm excited about the opportunity and am looking for fair compensation in exchange for contributing to the business"

Usually as an intern you have ZERO room for negotiation for a paid internship....

If the company is paying their interns different wages for the same role, that would strike me as very odd.

Remember it is an internship, the pay is a bonus, the experience should matter first in this case

my 2 cents

These days, internships are extended hiring interviews. Congratulations on making it through that first gate. Don't screw up the interview by acting entitled about the pay at this point.

Intern pay is rarely (I've never seen it) negotiable but she should be fine to ask what the compensation package looks like. Yes, internships are about the experience but pay is not a bonus and should be expected in line with entry level work. Unpaid internships are a sham and I would avoid companies that exploit free labor in such a way.

So…ok to ask, don't plan on negotiating (until full time offer is on the table).

Edit to add: also the career center and/or mentoring faculty usually have an idea of the going rates by major.

I graduated class of 2020 and had internships in 2018 and 2019 prior to graduation. When presented with the compensation the tone was basically "this is what you are going to get, take it or leave it". That being said, I think I got like $14-$15/hr plus overtime and both were sales internships for major companies.

At that time the going rate for my "regular" job during the school year at HEB in college was about $12/hr also. so i was thrilled with $14/hr + OT as a broke college guy.. but now I believe those guys are getting ~$15hr starting thanks to labor shortages and inflation... so do with that what you will

My company has set rates that increase based on student class level. 100% non-negotiable.

I would never negotiate the internship salary. If the salary was objectively low for the company size or going rate for the major, I'd ask about a living stipend based on some basic research for your short-term housing. I did this for my internship and it led to the company actually finding and fully paying for my summer housing.

I had 3 internships while in school.

$15/hr - summer 2018
$18.50/hr - summer 2019
$19.50/hr - summer 2020 (had a significantly higher paying one I turned down)

They can vary a lot though. $15/hr is the lowest I've seen for engineering students, and I've seen as high as $36/hr at a refinery. The actual value can vary even more as some will fully provide living with a short term apartment lease and furnish the apartment.

2007 I made $550 /wk plus a furnished apartment. I thought I was doing pretty good for myself.

Made $22-24/hr back in 2012/13. Some of y'all cheap

Senior EE student right now, $23 virtual co-op right now, $38 this summer with a diff company

I was able to negotiate a $1/hour increase to my accounting internship (I was at mid-market) but I would generally assume this isn't really negotiable.

I made $15/hr, $23/hr and $28/hr in my 3 summer internships

I think around $20/hr would be reasonable for a first internship for an ID major. Anything under $15 seems too low

I'm involved in our internship program at my company, as mentioned above, would accept whatever they offer.

There's probably a list of people they turned down just to get to this point, they can always call the next person on the list.

The one place I would say there is some wiggle room, is "living allowance". We pay the same rate to all interns, but if someone is put somewhere abnormal for their internship, or doesn't have family in the town of the office they are going to, we give varying amount of living allowance $ above the standArd salary.

Also mentioned above, internships are a test drive for the company, they get to see work ethic / problem solving / multitasking/ social skills for an extended period of time. The company (should) spends a lot of money and time on interns, hoping it works out and they find a good permanent employee. Don't ruin it right out of the gate "negotiating" salary. Everyone in the company will know, and it will follow you. It will give everyone a pre-conceived notion of entitlement, an issue/image that the current generation doesn't need any help creating.

SockDePot said:

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I'm involved in our internship program at my company, as mentioned above, would accept whatever they offer.

There's probably a list of people they turned down just to get to this point, they can always call the next person on the list.

The one place I would say there is some wiggle room, is "living allowance". We pay the same rate to all interns, but if someone is put somewhere abnormal for their internship, or doesn't have family in the town of the office they are going to, we give varying amount of living allowance $ above the standArd salary.

Also mentioned above, internships are a test drive for the company, they get to see work ethic / problem solving / multitasking/ social skills for an extended period of time. The company (should) spends a lot of money and time on interns, hoping it works out and they find a good permanent employee. Don't ruin it right out of the gate "negotiating" salary. Everyone in the company will know, and it will follow you. It will give everyone a pre-conceived notion of entitlement, an issue/image that the current generation doesn't need any help creating.

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I think this is good advice. I feel like people these days negotiate just because they were told thats what they're supposed to do. Theres a right time to negotiate in ones career, when youre trying to get an internship is not the right time.