Fair compensation for interns – what’s your take?

Not paying interns is patently exploitive. In some industries - fashion and media come to mind - it's endemic.

A top 3 ad agency had me come in and do in-service training to their stockade of unpaid graphic artists who were summer vacation substitutes for highly paid full-timers. That's a scam for clients who get mediocre works, for the vendors who had are expected to catch intern screwups, and for the interns themselves who are expected to perform miracles for the promise of experience.

We pay a modest hourly wage - at the moment $15/hour. We mentor interns extensively, including performance expectations and reviews. Showing up clear-headed and on time is at the top of the list.

The best pay for interns is the time devoted to them by experienced professionals under whom they learn the things.

When i started my learning journey, we used to get 45 dollars per month (in India) which might be equivalent to say 200-300 dollars people make in US.

It's the time of seniors that we get to work with.

They were industry experts since 12-15 years. We get to learn straight from them to be an expert in that field in say 4-5 years or so.

I’m all for paid internships. Interns do real work and invest time fair compensation isn’t just nice, it’s necessary. Even a modest stipend makes opportunities accessible and shows respect for their effort. Unpaid internships shouldn’t be the norm anymore.

We’ve always had paid interns for a simple reason.

We don’t hire interns unless we genuinely believe they can add value. And in the few cases where that hasn’t worked out, we’ve had an honest conversation early and asked them to move on.

Not because they weren’t capable, but because it’s better for everyone. They get the chance to find work they actually enjoy and can contribute to, and we avoid stretching both sides in the name of “learning.”

For me, it comes down to this :
If we expect someone to deliver value, we should pay them.
If they’re not in a position to contribute yet, they deserve clarity rather than free labor masked as “experience.”

I’m fully in favor of paid internships.

Unfortunately, in India, there are still no strong laws that protect interns from being unpaid. I really hope that changes and soon.

The common justification is, “You’re here to learn, so we don’t pay.”

But in reality, interns are often given heavy, repetitive tasks that full-time employees don’t want to do, and they’re expected to do it for free. That’s not learning, that’s exploitation.

Yes, interns gain skills and exposure. But they’re also putting in real effort, real time, and contributing real work. Any form of compensation even a modest stipend signals respect for that value.

It boosts morale, improves productivity, and helps interns feel like they actually matter to the organization.

This is not just an India problem.

Across many developing countries, unpaid internships are normalized under the excuse of experience or certification, and it takes a real toll on how young professionals perceive their own worth from the very beginning of their careers.

P.S. I’ve done unpaid internships myself so yes, the frustration in this reply comes from lived experience 😅

I also believe that interns should be paid, as it is a good start for their careers and it helps build loyalty to the company. In the past, it was difficult to find a job where interns were paid anything at all

In Brazil, we have both, but they are limited to working a maximum of 6 hours per day. This applies whether the internship is paid or unpaid.

If you are a paid intern, you receive half the minimum salary and cannot be asked to perform like a normal employee. We have strict rules against this, and we are all governed by a norm called CLT, which basically rules all employee-employer contracts, bonds, and relationships.

Personally, I was an unpaid intern in engineering. Mostly, you don't receive tasks or anything like that; you just get a permit to be there. When you are a paid intern, things are different. You receive some tasks and minimal responsibilities.

We also have programs in my city called "Young Apprentice." It's like an intern program, but you don't need to be currently enrolled in a bachelor's degree. So, you can work as an intern even if you have no prior education after high school. It's for even younger people; if you are 16 and below 25, you can do this without being matriculated in a university.

When I was working in a company, we had young apprentices and paid interns. They both worked similarly, but the paid interns were pushed to perform more than the young apprentices. In this particular case, both were paid for their working hours and only allowed to work a maximum of 6 hours per day.

There are other differences between the two roles, but they are very similar. They are all meant for people who need to discover how to work, learn the work, and understand the basics of the business.

From my experience, internships were always paid - both my own and those at the companies where I worked. Interns did real work, just a bit slower while learning, but they were never completely without knowledge.

my take is that I don't want to stop anyone from taking an unpaid internship if they go in with their eyes fully open. On the other hand, at a macro-economic or policy level, I don't want conditions such that large numbers of people are forced into unpaid work just to get a chance at paid work.