

Ask HN: What is a reasonable salary for a teenager to have during an internship? - anonymous112358

I won't give the exact field, but it is in the area of product design, graphic design, and programming.
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nano81
Is the teenager in high school? University? Does the teenager have any working
experience? What country is this in? What city?

Not nearly enough information to give any kind of estimate, and even with that
information, the answer would probably be "it varies" or "whatever you can
negotiate".

Edit: Here is some data from University of Waterloo you might find useful -
<http://www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/employers/salary.php>

Students alternate between school and work terms, so as you slide up the work
term levels it will be for students with more academic and internship
experiences.

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anonymous112358
Highschooler with previous internship experience.

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ecommando
Free. An internship is used to prove one's self. If it's remote relocation,
then you should offer to pay their moving expenses (if any). Usually, however,
internships in development are time-limited, and you may need to check IRS
regulations recently passed regarding internships.

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anonymous112358
You should note that there exist paid internships in addition to free
internships, and that there are strict federal legal criteria of both. See
page 8 of the following PDF:
[http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pd...](http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pdf)

Statistics have shown that many employers may illegally be using interns as
free labor. A while back, the New York Times published an article on the
topic: <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html>

My point is that I don't understand why you assumed that the internship I talk
of should be free. You didn't hear enough of the details to make a proper
legal stance on the issue, and more often than not employers are not paying
interns when they should be.

I see your point, but please reconsider what you wrote.

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justanotherbody
My first job was in IT and would have been an internship if the company
regularly hired people (it didn't, this was a special case because of family
connections). It was during the summer in high school and paid $10/hour.

In college I had a part-time job doing computer repair/maintenance for a small
office at $12.50 an hour, and later had a formal internship at a Fortune 500
company that paid $19.50 an hour

All this took place in the greater Seattle area.

Unless there is a compelling reason to work for free (e.g., difficult industry
to break in to, extreme desire to work for said company) I would advocate
never working for free if you can get paid. Everyone I've known who worked
free as an intern (3 people, perhaps not a large enough sample) were treated
unacceptably relative to the atmosphere of a professional office. One
basically became 12 people's gopher, filling out uninteresting paperwork and
rarely learning anything that added value to their ability to work.

In addition, being paid to work puts one in a position to learn to manage
their own finances, if only in part. For me this was easily more important
than all the technical skills I picked up.

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DavidSJ
This is an insulting question. The intern's age does not matter. What are his
or her skills, and how much would you pay an adult to do the same thing?

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curt
I was making just over $30/hr my freshmen year of college doing
engineering/design work. It went up from there until my senior year when I
switched to helping start-ups.

Had one friend who his senior year was making an average of $50+/hr. He was
doing 80+ hrs/wk so the overtime, double-time, and weekend-time really added
up.

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gexla
The reasonable salary is what the market can bear. If you receive an offer for
X, then you need to evaluate if you can make more money elsewhere or if your
time is worth more. Make your decision accordingly.

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brk
Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/hr, but that depends on area,
exact duties of the internship, etc. But, basically, something that covers gas
money and incidentals.

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fluorescentLAMP
My school requires internships. I don't know anyone being paid under $15/hr,
and I know a few that are $25+/hr

Edit: Also, Boston area.

