The pay of freshmen in India is a hot topic on Twitter right now. Others are still grieving over their low pay even after years of experience, while some users share their hardships to survive in metropolises on a meager wage of Rs 20,000 per month.
In the midst of all this discussion, interns are being overlooked because they are thought to either receive a meager income or no compensation at all. However, what if I told you that some interns make close to Rs 7 lakh per month? Wow, what a plot turn!
This is absurd, right? It's not a dream, though. There are businesses that actually offer interns an average wage of around Rs 7 lakh per month. The fact that the list was dominated by large tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta—all of which are now making layoffs as part of cost-cutting initiatives amid economic crises—only makes the situation even more incomprehensible. But the information above is accurate, as shown by a recent Glassdoor survey on the highest-paying internships.
'The 25 highest-paying internships of 2023' was recently revealed by Glassdoor, a platform where workers can provide anonymous company reviews. The highest-paying internships this year, according to this ranking, were sponsored by Stripe, a large international digital payment startup. Based on a 40-hour work week, Stripe interns are reportedly paid an average monthly wage of $9,064 (or Rs 7.40 lakh).
This indicates that Stripe pays its interns more than $100,000 annually, or about Rs. 8177,000. The salary package is for interns based in the US, thus comparing it to India is unfair, but it should be emphasized anyway. However, things are very different and salary packages vary greatly in India.
The majority of the top-paying businesses for interns are in the technology sector, including Meta, Snap, TikTok, Stripe, Coinbase, Amazon, and Microsoft. These are the organizations that recently underwent mass layoffs. While Glassdoor can't guarantee that all of these organizations will still be hiring interns this summer, it can attest that they have a history of paying interns competitively.
The top 10 organizations for paying interns a sizable salary are shown below.
A ranking of the top 10 employers paying the most for internships in 2023
Stripe pays an average of Rs 7.4 lakh ($9,064) per month.
$9,017 - Rs 7.4 lakh in Roblox
NVIDIA: Rs. 6.7 lakh / $8,280
Coinbase: Rs 6.7 lakh x $8,206
Meta: Rs. 6.6 lakh - $8,160
Capital One: Rs. 6.6 lakh - $8,050
Credit Suisse: Rs. 6.5 lakh - $7,947
Bain & Company: Rs. 6.4 lakh - $7,873
$7,809-Rs. 6.4 lakh on Amazon
EY-Parthenon: Rs. 6.2 lakh - $7,651
Stripe will offer the highest-paying internship in 2023, according to a report by Glassdoor, with an average monthly wage of $9,064. However, this is a little less than the highest pay at Roblox in 2022, which was $9,667. However, the average salary for the top 10 highest-paying internships in 2023 is $8,206, which is more than the $8,100 average from 2022.
While the macroeconomic environment is problematic and several major software organizations have made the decision to downsize their personnel, this list undoubtedly gives recent grads hope for beginning their careers.
It should be emphasized, though, that many businesses have currently stopped hiring and are even reorganizing their personnel. Consequently, finding an internship could be difficult. However, this does not imply that businesses are not using interns.
Daniel Zhao, the lead economist at Glassdoor, told CNBC that "in a challenging economic environment like the one we're in right now, it's not uncommon to see internship programs get paused or scaled back in order for companies to cut costs. However, some companies will continue to invest in interns even in difficult times as a way to continue nurturing the next-generation talent pipeline at the company."
