Fair IT Intern Hourly Rate

[Votivee]

Going in for an interview for an I.T. internship tomorrow, and it will be my first "real" internship/job experience since graduating college. Because of this, I'm not really sure what I should be expecting pay wise. I was hoping someone could tell me what a fair hourly rate would be if they were to ask me what I was hoping to make.

 

A few points that might help:

• Internship will be in New York State (Not near the city).
• Current Minimum wage here is $11.10/hr.
• I have my A.A.S. in Computer Information Technology and am currently one year away from my B.S. in Cyber security.
• I do have previous I.T. work experience, however it was back in high school and I was making a little over minimum wage and it was only for a short period of time.
• Internship will be 4 months long.
• It is a well-established multi-million dollar company.
• They reached out to me.

Personally, I was thinking something in the neighborhood of $14-$15/hr but I honestly am not sure what I'm basing that off of other than other jobs that were not I.T. related what so ever.

 

Any input on this is appreciated.

[Findiculous]

Internships are typically volunteer placements. Many posts don't pay a salary, although some do. Unpaid internships in the private sector must meet regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

 

Source:

https://work.chron.com/difference-between-internship-apprenticeship-29606.html

[HanZie82]

Age matters man, all them companies are so agist.
All i know if you're like in your early twenties, its not a bad income. But any above that and it will not be enough soon.

But since its an internship...

[Votivee]

13 minutes ago, Findiculous said:

Internships are typically volunteer placements. Many posts don't pay a salary, although some do. Unpaid internships in the private sector must meet regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

 

Source:

https://work.chron.com/difference-between-internship-apprenticeship-29606.html

I do know for a fact that it is paid, however the hourly rate is TBD and I have some suspicion that they're going to ask me my opinion on what I think I should be making.

[Syntaxvgm]

14-15$ an hour I think is fair entry level helpdesk in the area you are talking about, but IDK what their policy on internships is. I think with an interview you have to gauge what they intend for you to do and why, and finding out what their full time employees are paid helps as well. Some companies use internships to get free labor, others use it to groom potential employees before they are out of collage. Hiring a real employee with benefits is expensive, and with an internship they get to test drive someone while paying less. 

[solarflare]

Depends . do you have any certs? 

I should add if you have certs then the pay of a first year employee starting off into the tech world would likely be anywhere  from 15-20$/h id say 18 isn't a bad place to start as a intern. 

if you have no certs or anything yet then.. less. 

[HanZie82]

3 minutes ago, solarflare said:

Depends . do you have any certs? 

Can i point you to the first post?
Or are certs not certifications? And are they not already mentioned in the first post?

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, HanZie82 said:

Can i point you to the first post?
Or are certs not certifications? And are they not already mentioned in the first post?

OP only listed a degree, no mention of any certifications

[LewisPark]

I am nearing the end of my internship (Started back in June of last year). I intern for the county courts system. Is this internship contracted, or are you getting paid directly through them? My contractor had started me out at $14.25 /hr as a junior, but I was bumped to $16.50 when I hit my senior year. Minimum wage where I'm located is at around $9.  I think that your rate should reflect on any experience/schooling you have completed, but that is just my opinion...

[Mira Yurizaki]

Figure out what their entry level pay is and skirt below that since I feel asking for entry-level pay for an internship level position is disrespectful.

 

There's also the question if interns are typically in a position to negotiate their pay.

[Votivee]

44 minutes ago, solarflare said:

Depends . do you have any certs? 

 

40 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Can i point you to the first post?
Or are certs not certifications? And are they not already mentioned in the first post?

 

39 minutes ago, Lurick said:

OP only listed a degree, no mention of any certifications

No I do not have any certifications outside of my college education.

[Votivee]

32 minutes ago, LewisPark said:

Is this internship contracted, or are you getting paid directly through them?

I will be getting paid directly through the company.

33 minutes ago, LewisPark said:

My contractor had started me out at $14.25 /hr as a junior, but I was bumped to $16.50 when I hit my senior year. Minimum wage where I'm located is at around $9.  I think that your rate should reflect on any experience/schooling you have completed, but that is just my opinion...

Totally agree with you that my rate should depend on experience/schooling, which is why I made this thread. I'm not sure where I stand pay-wise with a completed degree and a year away from my second one. Thanks for sharing your pay rates, I'll probably stick with my original guess of $14/$15 after looking at your numbers.

[Votivee]

22 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Figure out what their entry level pay is and skirt below that since I feel asking for entry-level pay for an internship level position is disrespectful.

 

There's also the question if interns are typically in a position to negotiate their pay.

Agreed. I wanted to be prepared in case the question arose, and I didn't want to be asking too much if they did ask me what I am looking for and hurt my chances. I'm not looking to negotiate and get higher pay but more so just wanted to know where I stood with the current industry and my skill set/education.

 

[wasab]

5 hours ago, Findiculous said:

Internships are typically volunteer placements. Many posts don't pay a salary, although some do. Unpaid internships in the private sector must meet regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

 

Source:

https://work.chron.com/difference-between-internship-apprenticeship-29606.html

Most engineering internships are paid. Even so, expect minimum wage unless you intern at big companies like Google. One of my coworker interned at Google. It was the year 2009 and his paid rate was $17 USD per hour. 

 

Internships in the fields of humanity on the otherhand are simply volunteer work. Most people who major in sociology or any other social science tend to intern in women's shelter or whatnots which is more or less volunteer workers. 

[NineEyeRon]

Take whatever and get good then ask for more.

 

As Malcome Gladwell said “first to 10k hours wins”.

[dDave64]

2 minutes ago, LewisPark said:

I am nearing the end of my internship. I intern for the county courts system. Is this internship contracted, or are you getting paid directly through them? My contractor had started me out at $14.25 /hr as a junior, but I was bumped to $16.50 when I hit my senior year. Minimum wage where I'm located is at around $9.  I think that your rate should reflect on any experience/schooling you have completed, but that is just my opinion...

 

I did an internship that sounds similar to this several years ago. I think if you account for cost of living in NY and just inflation in general a more fair rate these days would be closer to at least $18

 

I started mine at $14.25/hr in Colorado in 2015.

[DavidKalinowski]

I actually do work for a college as a help desk tech, and I make right at 31K a year. (salary non exempt so I can still get over time. Yea I could make more in the private sector, but I work 8-5 m-f and get bassically every holiday, spring break and christmas off. but thats neither here nor there) So I think 13-14 an hour would be fine, if they offer you a full time job. But if its just a 4 month intern ship they will probably not want to give much more than min because there are plenty of other people that will take it to get their foot in the door. Thats what internships are, more or less. a way to get in. Good luck to you.

[wasab]

2 hours ago, comander said:

 

 

 For anything technical, this is low for a company like Google. I could see this happening for people in HR or Marketing. For SWE, it's closer to double this. I am aware that some tech support type roles are hired at L2 instead L3 (the minimum for SWE, which itself is around 30% higher at the same ladder level vs most other roles). If it's for a role that leads to an L2 offer at the Mountain View office I'd expect 20-30ish an hour for an internship. Similar for Amazon/Seattle or Facebook in Palo Alto. Can't speak to Microsoft (probably a bit lower) or Apple. G + A + F pay crazy amounts in general. 

Well, he was a psychology major and his job consists of typing stuffs into spreadsheet so idk. 

[Teddy07]

The better question is why do you even apply for internships? You got your degree so get a job.

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

The better question is why do you even apply for internships? You got your degree so get a job.

Because he still doesn't have his B.S.

 

It's also often easier to get a good job through an internship than going straight into the job itself.

 

I've had an internship in IT at a small company in NYC in 2016 and it paid $16/hour. Fair will depend a lot on the size of the company as well. If it's a decent size, I'd check Glassdoor to see if there are any numbers there.

[wasab]

10 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

Because he still doesn't have his B.S.

 

It's also often easier to get a good job through an internship than going straight into the job itself.

 

I've had an internship in IT at a small company in NYC in 2016 and it paid $16/hour. Fair will depend a lot on the size of the company as well. If it's a decent size, I'd check Glassdoor to see if there are any numbers there.

"it will be my first "real" internship/job experience since graduating college. "

 

This means he does have a degree in something. He should be searching for full time job. I mean internship is fine if it is full time work that gives you some steady income for the time being, but that is temporary, unless there is potential for permanent hire at the end if it.  

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, wasab said:

"it will be my first "real" internship/job experience since graduating college. "

 

This means he does have a degree in something. He should be searching for full time job. I mean internship is fine if it is full time work that gives you some steady income for the time being, but that is temporary, unless there is potential for permanent hire at the end if it.  

He has an associates but is still working towards a bachelors. It's not uncommon at all to get an internship in that scenario.

[Votivee]

2 hours ago, wasab said:

This means he does have a degree in something. He should be searching for full time job. I mean internship is fine if it is full time work that gives you some steady income for the time being, but that is temporary, unless there is potential for permanent hire at the end if it.  

@79wjd is right. I'm not looking to get a full time job until I'm done with school. Right now I'm just trying to fill out my resume and get on-the-job experience.

I wouldn't be able to juggle full-time school along with a full-time job (8-5 Mon-Fri)  without switching to night classes which usually are just basic classes. My school does not offer the classes I need for my major online or at night.

[Evanair]

3 hours ago, wasab said:

"it will be my first "real" internship/job experience since graduating college. "

 

This means he does have a degree in something. He should be searching for full time job. I mean internship is fine if it is full time work that gives you some steady income for the time being, but that is temporary, unless there is potential for permanent hire at the end if it.  

Good God I wished my field worked like that. People with BS and MS are still taking internships, unpaid, because the corporate world can get away with it.

 

It's a going joke that you work part time when you're not working 80 hours unpaid just to crash on someone's couch with your phone next to your ear for the call to come into work.

[LogicalDrm]

Paid trainee is €1200-2000/mo here. Depending on experience and education. You can get more, up to €2500/mo if you have talents company is looking for, and possibly willing to commit later to that company. So that's €7.5-15.5/h. 7.5h per day, 2 days off per full month.

 

That's low enough that one can still get low income housing support if it's 3mo or less.