That's a general problem in Europe. Software engineering professionals are paid a fraction of what their colleagues earn in the US, especially in Silicon Valley. I think the cause is simply that European companies haven't worked out how to create comparable value as SV from software engineering, so of course they can't afford to pay the engineers as well. And then they complain of the brain drain towards the US.
I'm curious about these numbers. Do Facebook interns receive insurance? Do they get any other benefits, like stock or bonuses? Undergraduates have echoed numbers like this to me, which is great, but we should be careful to compare internships with other internships, not against full-time employees. They don't seem to be apples to apples comparisons.
Their title is still intern, so I assume they know they don't get benefits, and their goal is still to become full time employees at the company or elsewhere.
It's hard to compare since internships are usually paid by the hour (at least nominally) and we don't know how many hours/week they worked, but that seems right on line with what New York companies pay their interns. Perhaps on the higher end, sure, but nothing surprising.
For what it's worth, that's approximately half of what some interns make at Apple.
My understanding is that one receives 1.5 times their typical salary after eight hours and twice their typical pay after 12 hours. Some students are willing to put in the occasional 100 hour week when internships only last four months. Considering the base salary Apple offers is already relatively substantial (speaking as a student, at least) that can be quite a lot of money.
The article doesn't mention the corporate housing options they offer, or the relocation reimbursement, or the various other perks that (pretty dependably) come with any offer from a large tech company in the U.S.
Why is this news? Software engineering interns are ALWAYS paid because they usually produce something usable by the company.
My intern paycheck was equivalent and it also wasn't FB.
I'm going to be looking for an internship somewhere next year, maybe I should be going in the US !