
Interns in tech make more than workers in most occupations - M_Grey
https://www.theatlas.com/charts/ryBZlr17e
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jasonpeacock
That's because workers in tech make more than workers in most occupations.

When you hire an intern, you pay them almost-entry-level rates because they
are doing almost-entry-level work.

Interns are not slaves to be under-paid, and tech is a high paid industry. I'm
not sure what's surprising about this.

~~~
BlackjackCF
Yup, agreed with this.

Call me a privileged asshole or whatever since I work in tech and I get paid
well, but isn't that how supply and demand works? Once upon a time, you could
get a really well-paying factory job or a well-paying job working in the coal
mines since those jobs were in demand.

I feel like that's how it's kind of working in software. Factory jobs are
going away because robotics are taking over, which creates a demand for
engineers to maintain these robots. We're kind of going through a second
industrial revolution, except it's a digital and robotics revolution.
Unfortunately, that means we're also feeling the crunch of that which means
there's a big demand for engineers that our workforce doesn't supply for...
yet. So yes, tech interns are going to get paid more than most other places.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
I kinda feel like if we were really going through a second Industrial
Revolution, GDP and productivity growth rates would be a lot higher. Maybe
we'll manage to unleash an Industrial Revolution if we break up monopolies,
fund public infrastructure properly, and do other things to create space for
really new enterprises.

~~~
tomjen3
Productivity is up, massively, for those who are able to participate in the
"new" economy. You can reach millions of users several magnitudes cheaper than
ever before. Even small companies owned and operated by a single person can
have customers spread over the entire world.

Needless to say, most people are not able to participate.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
>Productivity is up, massively, for those who are able to participate in the
"new" economy.

Do we have any numerical evidence for this? Sure, it could explain Google's
revenues, but monopoly rents from being _the_ search-engine could explain that
too. What about on a per-worker-hour basis, wit some official numbers?

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kough
Also important to realize that no intern actually gets the full yearly salary
-- these internships usually last around 3 months.

Not a huge fan of this site, presenting data without context seems like a
great way to stir up trouble without doing any actual reporting.

~~~
kctess5
I agree. Interns also generally receive no extended benefits like 401(k),
stock, medical, and so on, so the comparison isn't very fair in terms of total
comp.

~~~
chrisseaton
But interns do get things like free housing and free cars which full times do
not.

~~~
akhilcacharya
Never heard of free cars - who does that?

~~~
webo
I got a free rental car from Amazon in summer 2013. I don't think they do that
anymore tho.

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ajdlinux
Interns in tech _in the United States_.

~~~
aoeu345
And interns in Canada. On my second internship, I got paid more per month than
my mother who works in the public sector!

~~~
akhilcacharya
Wait, really? I've never heard of Canadians from UW making $8K like they do in
SV/SEA/NYC

~~~
victorvation
A lot of Canadians from UW _are_ the ones working in SV/SEA/NYC.

~~~
akhilcacharya
Yeah, I was assuming the compensation in Canada is why they choose to do so.

~~~
bluebknight
It does sound like he means companies in Canada.

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exolymph
Wow, it's almost like supply and demand have an effect on wages.

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kozikow
Funny anecdote is that when I used to be intern from Poland on J1 (~5500 USD
per month), savings from 3 months of internship in USA divided by 9 months
were higher than average salary in Poland. We got most of taxes back. We also
had free tuition and great scholarships from EU.

It was quite easy to get the internship. Back in my time, ~2011, ~1/3 of
students from my alma mater, Warsaw University, did J1 internship in USA.

~~~
gragas
Do most students from your university stay in Poland, or do they move
elsewhere after graduating?

~~~
kozikow
Bay Area is definitely the most popular destination. Then Zurich (Big Google
office), London and finally staying in Warsaw.

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alpos
Related data [http://observer.com/2014/12/the-master-list-of-tech-
internsh...](http://observer.com/2014/12/the-master-list-of-tech-internship-
salaries-revealed/) [https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/engineering-intern-
salary...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/engineering-intern-salary-
SRCH_KO0,18.htm) [https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-intern-salary-
SR...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-intern-salary-
SRCH_KO0,15_SDMC.htm) [https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-
engineering-inte...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-engineering-
intern-salary-SRCH_KO0,27.htm) [https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-
developer-intern...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-developer-
intern-salary-SRCH_KO0,25_SDMC.htm)

BLS data on pay by occupation
[http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000](http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000)

While the graph in the OP seems a bit subjectively selective, the BLS data
seems to support the argument and data from other sources seems to support the
74k number for software intern average salary.

Adjusted for length of employment (assuming about three months per year) that
would be $19,500 / yr. Not entirely unexpected tbh.

There are some articles out there hint at the average seasonal salary being
around $69k [http://www.simplyhired.com/salaries-k-seasonal-
jobs.html](http://www.simplyhired.com/salaries-k-seasonal-jobs.html)

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shostack
I wonder how it stacks up against law and banking internships.

~~~
kctess5
I've had several big name tech internships, and I got an internship offer from
a bank to do tech work. The bank offered around 2/3rd the comp with
significantly worse benefits, which surprised me considering that a) they were
in NYC b) they were a big name and c) they approached me, not the other way
around. Not sure if they pay the trader type interns more...

~~~
akhilcacharya
Which one was that? IIRC Goldman pays the same or more for Tech than for
others, but I'm not sure.

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kctess5
It was GS

~~~
akhilcacharya
For Junior interns salary is very competitive with even Big4. Total
compensation lags because of no housing, though.

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markonthewall
Yes, salaries in SV are high. But, you can bet your ass that that sample set
is made of students who for the most part come from a handful top-notch
schools.

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cyc115
I find the stats looks rather skewed? anyone else thinks so too ?

~~~
aarongolliver
The tech intern data was a self-reported online survey distributed around
tech-focused Facebook groups (eg: I definitely saw and participated in this
survey last year, on Hackathon Hackers).

The other salary data was from "BLS May 2015 National Occupational Employment
and Wage Estimates".

I found the survey useful to compare your offers to other offers at that
company/ones nearby. It was way easier to use than glassdoor, especially
because the offers increase a little every year and you want to be sure you're
not getting screwed somehow.

Definitely should be used for any real analysis though, not even blog-post
analysis.

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nness
Sample size for interns\graduate hires was 352 (57 female, 278 male). Which I
don't suspect is a large enough sample.

~~~
fourneau
Looking at their raw data, it looks like there was a total of 718 respondents
([https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Km9bsx0SWPDiOPMYvrem...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Km9bsx0SWPDiOPMYvremSDujyS5sF0ZQvbxr5S52wSA/edit#gid=1801472043)).

Large enough sample to be ultra conclusive? Not really, but I think it gives
you a taste for the data and it's unlikely that tech interns /do/ make more
than most, but it's not really surprising.

~~~
nness
The survey include a 50/50 mix of interns and full-time positions, so some of
that data might be for FTE's.

