The good and bad of internships

The good and bad of internships

By: Brandon Foley

During our lifetimes, we have to apply for jobs; it’s an integral part of growing up. While some are for employment requiring applications that are denied or accepted, there is another type of job. These are the lower positions, such as volunteers and interns. An intern is a student or recent graduate who gets supervised training in their professional field. While they can be paid or unpaid, the general agreement is experience with a hope for future employment with the organization.

A simple, fair exchange at first glance. The student does unpaid work or work at below standard rates, and in return they learn more about their career, gain college credit, and or get connections that could lead to more. However, there’s more to the practice than meets the eye. For starters, it’s worth discussing the rate of exchange.

One big question that comes to mind is how big are the benefits of the trade-off? Although each party is technically giving something, what one party gives is vastly different from what the other receives. The intern is unequivocally giving up their time; there is no lessening of that investment. But on the flip side, how valuable is the investment?

That’s not to say every position must be extremely lucrative and guaranteed, but it's important to ask about how the hours spent are compensated. After all, it is similar to a job in that if the work is unpaid and with no upward opportunities, it makes workers feel at best dejected and at worst actively drives them away.

If it’s far from balanced, it is one party taking advantage of the other in order to gain their desired objectives. The first group is those working in internships, be they in school or recent graduates who do the work in exchange for credit or to add to their resume.

According to the National Association of College and Employers, as of 2023, 40.8% of bachelor’s degree graduating students are unpaid interns, while the other 59.2% were given more than college credit for their time. Paid interns make between $15.67-$19.51 per hour according to Sofi.com, the digital personal finance company, which shakes out to about $34,674-$40,581, a far cry from Glassdoor’s estimates of 48-75K annual salary. A big concern is also about the availability of those positions. How helpful are people seeking paid internships if they are so competitive that they are effectively out of reach? For example, paid interns are often required or asked to have expertise, functionally making it no longer supposed to be an internship but a paid position.

As Handshake’s 2025 Internships Index report says, “Postings on Handshake declined by more than 15% between January 2023 and January 2025, while internship applications surged—as of January 2025, 41% of Class of 2025 students had applied to at least one internship through Handshake, compared to 34% of Class of 2023 students at the end of their undergraduate career.”

With dwindling numbers of availability to such a degree, it trends more towards winning a type of lottery than a serious application to learn and grow in the desired field. So, whether or not it pays $15.67 or more, the competition means that people increasingly have to pivot towards unpaid internships.

The other group involved is the ones that take on the interns. They are supposed to be training the graduates, and are gaining people to do jobs that would otherwise have to be paid a standard wage. This saves money by paying in experience or vastly reduced pay rather than hiring a full-time or even part-time employee.

The items being exchanged are in different forms, making it harder to equivocate, but it does beg the question: Are interns being paid somewhat proportionately in experience? Just because one is operating on something more nebulous than the other doesn’t mean that there isn’t still real value and money being gained.

According to Lisa Robinson, of the University of Massachusetts, in her paper on the subject, noting the problems with internships’ payments and job labor.

"Unpaid internships create a dangerous precedent for fair labor since their legality is unclear. On its surface, unpaid internships are essentially unpaid labor. Interns are given tasks and projects that may be similar to those of paid employees. Furthermore, even if they are simply given duties that are remedial, like ordering coffees or printing out documents, they are still contributing labor to the organization for which they are not being compensated. Employers who hire unpaid interns are able to get away with this because interns are not fully considered employees. By manipulating the language and fine details of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are able to exempt interns from the protections that are guaranteed to paid employees.”

This applies to a wide swath of society, such as educators and other service-based professions, who may not be using a standardized form of currency, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still performing a service undeserving of rightful compensation. Would it be fair to tell an Olympic coach you’ll give them a shout-out? Regardless of the medium, real time is being given, and the industry is saving real money. Intentionally avoiding paying and giving an unequal exchange is demanding the individual subsidize themselves for the organization, not unlike taking lumber from another professional to “cut costs.”

Second, what do the interns do? Interns are not supposed to be in the industry solely to grab coffee or make appointments. They are there to learn and ingratiate themselves with those in their field. From Kevin Gray’s notes on NACE’s 2025 Student Survey, preparedness for their career, “Less than two-thirds felt they were paid fairly, and 81% had a mentor, an important figure in helping the young professional grow.” While it should be noted that nearly 9 in 10 respondents liked their organization and more than 75% felt they were treated well, only 55% said they’d stay upon completion of their internship. In all fairness, it does point to general favorable perspectives on the situation.

Is it actually helpful in securing future employment? Someone can like an organization and gain knowledge, but it’s made less effective if the information sits unemployed. The Economic Policy Institute delves into that very issue. For-profit companies have a hire rate of 72.2% for paid interns, compared with 43.9% for unpaid interns. Non-profits have 51.7% paid compared to 41.5% unpaid. Government positions have 61.9% versus 50% unpaid. Finally, the state or local government has 50.5%, compared to 33.8%. It is worth asking what favorable numbers are. Is 72.2% considered reasonable, or should companies hire more interns, making them employees?

While there are pros and cons involved in internships, it’s worth seriously asking about the rates and the fairness to the parties involved. Do the pros outweigh the cons, both for the interns as well as the companies that decide to take them on? There are nuances involved, requiring more than just a cursory glance at the situation.