Fringe elements of the left have long been extremely bothered by intern pay—specifically, the lack thereof in many of the industries that, coincidentally, many on the left want to work in. Media internships—be they in Hollywood or at news outlets—are often unpaid. They are often unpaid because the labor involved is menial, the jobs frequently go to the best connected rather than the best skilled, and interns are typically more work to manage than their meager output is worth.
"But equality or something!" these rabble rousers cry, worrying that it's super duper unfair that some people agree to work for what their labor is worth (which is to say: nothing). And equality is what they have gotten! Conde Nast, for instance, recently scrapped its internship program altogether because it realized that paying workers more than they're worth (which is to say: nothing) is an insane business decision. In a tight industry like the media—where subscription rates are falling and ad revenues are declining—throwing money at people who don't deserve it is nuts.
However, it's not just unpaid internships that have fallen under the withering gaze of the egalitarians. Super-paid internships are also viewed with a skeptical eye.
Hence this new study from Glassdoor, which lists the 25 highest-paid internships in the land. While Wall Street used to dominate such lists, Silicon Valley is where the action is these days. And, not so coincidentally, Silicon Valley has supplanted Wall Street as enemy number one when it comes to "inequality."
"While the median household income in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is $53,046, several interns earn much more—$75,000+, assuming they were to work a full year," Glassdoor's press release announces. Let's leave aside the questionable nature of that assumption—most internships are for a couple of months, not 12—and instead focus on the subtle bit of class warfare being waged. The comparison between the median national income and the income earned by these young programmers is intended to get a rise out of the average reader. It is intended to engender resentment.
The media, needless to say, picked up on this dog whistle. Here's Slate:
If you feel that you are fairly compensated at your job, are proud of your recent raise, and make less than $84,000 a year, be warned: You are about to feel really annoyed. That's because interns at the top-paying companies in the country are making no less than $4,600 a month (that would be $55,200 per year) and as much as $7,000 a month. Interns. And 18 of the top 25 companies are in the tech sector.
Emphasis in the original, because the author wants you to know that these are interns and thus not worth the beaucoup bucks being thrown their way. The worst offender, interestingly, is Market Watch, a project of the Wall Street Journal, which has posted a listicle headlined "America's 10 Most Overpaid Interns." Note: not "highest paid," but "most overpaid." As if there is a magical number that these skilled employees should be paid. As if the author understands exactly what these workers are worth. As if wage controls for interns are any more sensible than wage controls for any other employee.
It's as though intern pay is subject to the Goldilocks Principle: there's a certain level of salary that is "just right." Unpaid internships are unfair to the intern and overly paid internships are unfair to the rest of us. Instead, there's a magical level of earnings that—regardless of skill level, regardless of the work to be done, regardless of how many people want to do the work—all interns should earn. And if these tech companies are so gauche as to flaunt this principle?
Well, maybe it's time to start confiscating some wealth.