Ask HN: How to negotiate a summer internship salary?

[Syntaf]

Hi all, I recently applied, and was accepted, to work as an intern for a web development company here in town. I'm in my last year of college, and feel I need the internship experience to make transitioning out of school into a web dev position easier.

Problem is: they're lowballing the salary really hard. I was just emailed I'd be making $12/hr, which is waaaaay low because I make $22/hr at my non-web related CS job right now. I have 4 years of summer internships / side research work under my belt so I definitely feel I deserve a considerably higher salary.

How do I go about negotiating this? Do I send them an email saying I feel I deserve a higher salary? Or not mention a number and ask to meet in person to discuss salary?

Thanks for any tips

[curiouscat321]

Just ask. You can use your other job as leverage.

The fact is, you specifically say that you "feel I need the internship experience to make transitioning out of school into a web dev position easier."

Considering this is your only offer (I assume), you don't have a ton of leverage for getting more money.

As for logistics, email or phone is fine. In-person is just awkward for what amounts to a 5-minute phone call. They'll be back and forth on their end.

[Syntaf → curiouscat321]

While this is my only offer, the internship I am currently at wishes to keep me for the summer (they are unaware that I received this offer).

I simply would enjoy the work at this other company more, but not enough to consider slashing my pay in almost half.

Do you think specifically mentioning my current pay is a good idea?

[pencilpup223]

What state is the job in? Is it possible that $12/hr is actually under the minimum wage?

[Syntaf → pencilpup223]

I reside in Las Vegas, so $12/hr is above the minimum wage.

The issue is that the university here has quite the poor CS curriculum, and pumps out a lot of sub par programmers. This company is probably used to taking in interns with zero web dev experience and paying them a low wage (because the student doesn't know better)

My case is a bit different, I feel comfortable with web technologies and will be able to give a lot more. Problem is their proposed salary is just toooooo low.