Are unpaid internships worth it? 💭

Hey! Here’s a video that left us speechless: A high school teacher asked her students to guess the amount of her stipend to lead the Spanish Honors Society.

Their guesses were across the board, from $10K to $30K. What’s your guess? 👀 Keep reading to get the answer (and trust us—it’ll stun you).

Are Unpaid Internships Worth It? 

An intern at Stripe earns $9,064 per month, while a United Nations intern is paid $0. That’s just the weird world of internships, where your time might be worth thousands—or nothing.

Sadly, unpaid internships aren’t uncommon. Many companies justify them as a trade-off for “experience” that may (or may not) lead to future career opportunities. The irony? Plenty of high-paying jobs don’t require unpaid labor to land your first role.

Unpaid internships can seem like the only way to get your foot in the door in a world where entry-level jobs can demand up to eight years of experience (yes, really).

But is this really the case? Do unpaid internships have any upsides or are they downright exploitative? And how did they become a thing in the first place? Let’s find out. 

The origin of the unpaid internship 

Unpaid internships can be traced back to the Middle Ages when young apprentices worked under a mentor to learn a trade. But apprentices weren’t entirely unpaid—in exchange for their labor, they received food, lodging, and clothing (a deal a modern intern could only dream of 🙃). 

It wasn’t until 1947 that unpaid internships as we now know them started to gain steam. That year, the Supreme Court ruled that a railway company wasn’t required to pay workers during their training program—and the decision opened the loophole employers use today to justify unpaid internships. 

The pros and cons of an unpaid internship 

77 years later, and unpaid internships remain a (very) divisive topic. On the pro side, they offer hands-on experience, networking opportunities, and academic credits for students completing degrees.

But the cons? They’re hard to ignore.

• They’re unpaid (duh). Without income, you may need to rely on savings, family support, or a part-time job, adding extra stress and limiting your ability to give 100% to the internship. 

• They’re not a guarantee. Just because you put in the hours doesn’t mean you’ll get a job offer or useful connections. 

• They’re exclusionary. Not everyone can afford to work for free. Translation? Unpaid internships marginalize those who aren’t well-off or well-connected. 

Are unpaid internships even worth it? 

In short, it depends on your personal circumstances. Ask yourself these six questions to help you decide:

How to find paid internships instead 

Unpaid internships are not your only option. 60.2% of internships are paid—and some interns are earning as much as $71,000 a year, per our Salary Database! 

The key is knowing where to look, and that’s where we come in. We’ve compiled a list of top sites to help you find paid internships, and you can access it right here.

How much are people earning in Miami? 🌴 We hit the streets of the Magic City to find out. Here’s who we met: 

• An e-commerce content creator whose business is netting $3 million a year with over 15 million subscribers 

• A union journeyman electrician pulling $100K a year (yet another reason why we 💚 unions) 

• A healthcare IT consultant earning $120 an hour on track to make $200,000 this year 

Watch to learn more (and hear their best career advice)!

• Receive a raise? Finally got your bank account where you want it to be? Take that extra cash and invest it with Public’s Bond Account and lock in a 6.7%¹ yield on your investment.*

• USPS letter carriers are revolting. 📪 225,000 postal workers were promised a historic contract this year. Instead? They got a 1.3% raise. Now, they’re rallying nationwide to demand better pay and safer working conditions. 

• Walmart pays the price for wrongful termination. 🚚 A jury awarded $35 million to a Walmart truck driver after he was falsely accused of fraud. To put that into perspective: He would’ve had to drive for 625 years to earn that much (the average trucker’s salary is $56K). 

• Do you know which tech jobs pay the most in every state? 🧑‍💻 DataCamp found that data architects dominate as both the highest-paid and most common roles, with average salaries reaching $158,930 in states like New Jersey. 

• This roofer earns $70,000 a year. 🏠 Bridgette Tena works as a roofer in New Mexico and launched her own roofing business in 2021. A smart move, considering roofing is one of the fastest-growing jobs in the US—and it doesn’t require a degree to get started.

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Thanks for reading! Catch up on our latest episode of Two Cents, where we share our (very) embarrassing money habits, including…

• How Hannah lost over $3,000 on her orthodontics journey

• The bad habit costing James thousands of dollars 

What financial habits are you looking to improve next year? Reply and let us know! We’d love to hear from you.

Oh, and that stipend for the high school teacher leading the Spanish Honors Society? $165. No, we’re not accidentally missing a zero.

See you next week!

¹ ^{Yield represents avg. annualized rate of return across all bonds, before fees, as of 12/02/2024. Yield can change daily, and yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown. Return may be affected if you do not hold a bond to maturity, or if the issuer defaults or calls the bond.}

^{Paid endorsement for Public Investing, Inc. Not investment advice. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US Listed and registered securities, options and Bonds in a self-directed brokerage account are offered by Public Investing. A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC and includes 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 10/28/2024, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across all ten bonds is greater than 6%. A bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased and is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. While corporate bond yields should fall in reaction to a Federal Reserve rate cut, there is no way to know whether that will be true of the bonds in the Bond Account, how quickly bond yields will respond, or by how much they will decline. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. All investing involves risk. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. Visit public.com/bond-account to learn more.}