<p>I'll be graduating with a degree in engineering next year and am getting hired by a company in Illinois for a one-year internship. Yes, one entire year. They say they will provide me with a housing stipend (to cover rent only), and they asked me how much I want to be paid for the internship. What on earth am I supposed to say? I've never really had an internship before.</p>
<p>I was going to say $25/hr. Is that too ambitious? What if they reject me because I'm demanding too much?</p>
<p>I think 25/hr is reasonable. As a first year engineering you should be able to get 70+K a year. Not sure how much rent is where you’ll be working, assuming 1000/mon, 25/hr is fine. Lets see what they come back with.</p>
<p>If they’ve hired you, no they won’t drop you just because you asked too much, but they very well may say “No, that’s too much, come back with a lower number” </p>
<p>If they’re providing a housing stipend, $25 wouldn’t be a bad number, I might consider asking $30 though.</p>
<p>So no, it’s not reasonable to think that you “should” get $70+k. </p>
<p>$25/hr is reasonable to ask, and if you get that, it’s a fair salary. </p>
<p>Assuming you pay $1000/mo in rent (and the company covers that $1000/mo), you’re getting $12,000 tax-free a year (i.e. $16,000 pre-tax). If you make $25/hr, you make $52,000 a year, plus the ‘free’ $16,000 a year you get would be a salary of $68,000. And realistically, be okay with taking anything $22/hr and up (if they pay rent). With the housing stipend, $22/hr equals approximately $60k.</p>
<p>So no, it’s not reasonable to think that you “should” get $70+k. </p>
<p>$25/hr is reasonable to ask, and if you get that, it’s a fair salary. </p>
<p>Assuming you pay $1000/mo in rent (and the company covers that $1000/mo), you’re getting $12,000 tax-free a year (i.e. $16,000 pre-tax). If you make $25/hr, you make $52,000 a year, plus the ‘free’ $16,000 a year you get would be a salary of $68,000. And realistically, be okay with taking anything $22/hr and up (if they pay rent). With the housing stipend, $22/hr equals approximately $60k.</p>
<p>So you are quoting median starting salary from WS, and I am telling you what WE would pay for engineering majors. The way we decide how much we need to pay is by looking at what other firms are paying. I have first hand experience and you are reading about it. Hmmm…I recruit a lot.</p>
<p>Housing allowance is completely taxable, unless it’s on the employer’s premises, and the employer requires you to live on-premises as a condition of employment. The company paying it just saves you writing the check.</p>
<p>This is mainly a “where in Illinois” question. If you live in Chicago, your CoL would be around 30% higher than if you lived in Peoria; salaries are generally higher, but the cost of living is affected most by cost of housing.</p>
<p>Since housing is provided (I’m guessing it’s not “you find the place and we’ll pay for it” as much as “here’s your limit”). Other questions that need to be identified…</p>
<p>Is this an internship that will lead to a FT offer?
Will you be doing the same kind of work that a first year FT employee would do?</p>
<p>If the answer to both questions is yes, then it makes sense to look up average salary information for first-year, FT engineering employees in the city/town of that company and ask for the equivalent of that. If the answer to either question is no, you should still look that stuff up, but you’d need to adjust your requested salary lower to be realistic.</p>
<p>Example (NOT based on any research I actually did):</p>
<p>You are going to be in Chicago and will have rent costs of around $1,000/mo. Average salary for first year engineers is $65,000. You are doing the same job as an engineer would. Companies are not allowed - legally - to give untaxed benefits, so it’s reasonable to assume that the housing allowance will be in the form of a one-time bonus of 16-20k (that would cover relocation as well). For purposes of this, let’s use the higher estimate - You get $20k but because of withholding, you only see about $12k of that (the rest will be given as a refund when you do your taxes). If this is the case, and that’s a big IF, you could expect an annualized salary of $45,000 or $22.50 per hour. If they give you $15,000, you could expect an annualized salary of $50,000 or $25.00 per hour (I do 50 weeks x 40 hours per week to account for holidays and vacation).</p>
<p>Either way, it would be reasonable to ask for a bit more than what you expect… in the scenario above, if you get $20k and expect a total of $65 including the housing allowance, I’d ask for $25/hr and expect $22.50.</p>
<p>If you’re a single person making $65k a year, you ought not expect a refund of all of your withholding with your tax return. That 25% bonus withholding rate is pretty close to spot-on, if your withholding on the base wage put you at break-even before the housing payment.</p>
<p>Typically, you are advised not to tell them, let them make the 1st offer. Say you want to be paid a fair rate or something like that. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how much interns get paid, I’d do a search on glassdoor or another one of those websites. Hopefully you can find some #'s for that specfic company, so you are not asking for anything crazy off (in either way) and then find #'s for other companys in the area. And if you decide to give them a number, say you’ve done some research online and ~25/hour seems to be the going rate for a new hire in the area if you convert it into an hourly, so that is sort of around what you are expecting but are interested in hearing what they usually offer interns. </p>
<p>Sometimes company’s pay their interns poorly, comared to a new hire, so be prepared for that possibility as well.</p>
<p>S just got an engineering internship for the summer only and will be getting $23 per hour plus travel and housing stipend. Also, his friend, another engineering student, got the same rate. So I think $25 is reasonable to ask, especially for a year internship.</p>