Internship Salary

[ChannelingBobMarley]

Does anyone know how internships are able to pay less than minimum wage? My DCT thinks it's because they are providing a training service much like how a practicum experience doesn't pay students, but if a site is billing for our services, then we are considered an employee, which I would have thought meant they'd have to pay above minimum wage (I'm assuming). I realize that I can choose to rank sites who's pay I agree with, but I'm still curious how they are able to do that. Any knowledge or resources would be helpful, thank you.

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[GradStudent2020]

Does anyone know how internships are able to pay less than minimum wage? My DCT thinks it's because they are providing a training service much like how a practicum experience doesn't pay students, but if a site is billing for our services, then we are considered an employee, which I would have thought meant they'd have to pay above minimum wage (I'm assuming). I realize that I can choose to rank sites who's pay I agree with, but I'm still curious how they are able to do that. Any knowledge or resources would be helpful, thank you.

Are they billing for your services? I assume it’s possible if a student has a Master’s level license. I’m license-eligible in the state I’ll be an intern at but they have not asked me to acquire the license.

 

[ChannelingBobMarley]

Are they billing for your services? I assume it’s possible if a student has a Master’s level license. I’m license-eligible in the state I’ll be an intern at but they have not asked me to acquire the license.

Yes, they'd be billing for my services. Thoughts?

 

[Justanothergrad]

Does anyone know how internships are able to pay less than minimum wage? My DCT thinks it's because they are providing a training service much like how a practicum experience doesn't pay students, but if a site is billing for our services, then we are considered an employee, which I would have thought meant they'd have to pay above minimum wage (I'm assuming). I realize that I can choose to rank sites who's pay I agree with, but I'm still curious how they are able to do that. Any knowledge or resources would be helpful, thank you.

Because it's not an hourly position.



And if you work 40h a week and make 19k (well below many [most?] salaries) you are well over minimum wage. Heck, VA are thousands above that. I doubt many would translate below the $16,240 equivalent for minimum wage at the fed. rate if you translated the salary to a hourly post. Note, I dont consider unaccredited crap programs as reasonable markers.

 

[GradStudent2020]

Because it's not an hourly position.



And if you work 40h a week and make 19k (well below many [most?] salaries) you are well over minimum wage. Heck, VA are thousands above that. I doubt many would translate below the $16,240 equivalent for minimum wage at the fed. rate if you translated the salary to a hourly post. Note, I dont consider unaccredited crap programs as reasonable markers.

Isn’t it $15,080?

I didn’t give it much thought, but I’m surprised you are being offered a salary that low. I didn’t see anything under $18k. Or is it a state with a higher minimum wage?

 

[psych.meout]

I don't know if minimum wage laws apply. If I remember correctly, at least APPIC lists the pay for internship as "stipends," which may be a loophole.

Isn’t it $15,080?

I didn’t give it much thought, but I’m surprised you are being offered a salary that low. I didn’t see anything under $18k. Or is it a state with a higher minimum wage?

I think some CMHCs and consortiums have pretty low stipends. The former probably can't afford more, but I'm not sure about the latter.

 

[ChannelingBobMarley]

It was more-so for larger cities that have a city-regulated minimum wage (e.g., New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA is $15/hr, which, a 2,000 hour internship would mean a stipend of $30,000). Maybe you're right @psych.meout; calling it a stipend could be a loophole.

Also, @Justanothergrad; I'm referring to pretty prestigious APA accredited programs.

 

[Justanothergrad]

Isn’t it $15,080?

I didn’t give it much thought, but I’m surprised you are being offered a salary that low. I didn’t see anything under $18k. Or is it a state with a higher minimum wage?

Yup- good call. Must have typed that in wrong. The perils of fast mobile responses.

Also,@Justanothergrad; I'm referring to pretty prestigious APA accredited programs.

The key is that it isnt an hourly position. The same reason salary doesnt get OT.

 

[PsyDr]

@Justanothergrad

I think you’re a tad mistaken. Salaries positions are absolutely eligible for ot, since the Obama administration created a new rule. The HUGE loophole is that healthcare professionals were specifically exempted from getting overtime. Which is how psychology pays so little at internship.

 

[Justanothergrad]

@Justanothergrad

I think you’re a tad mistaken. Salaries positions are absolutely eligible for ot, since the Obama administration created a new rule. The HUGE loophole is that healthcare professionals were specifically exempted from getting overtime. Which is how psychology pays so little at internship.

Yeh, I over-simplified it a bit by stating that salary positions are not OT eligible but the practical effect of the Obama administration's new rule doesn't change a ton from it's pre-implementation. Internships generally pay well over the salary test and the issue becomes the duties exemption which covers basically every sort of educated professional (doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, etc etc.). The net effect is that the new rule was really a change for low wage/non-skilled salary positions and not professional positions and that's where I could have been clearer.

 

[ChannelingBobMarley]

@Justanothergrad The other thing is that federal regulation for salaried employees is that the minimum weekly pay is $455, which equates to $22,750 and there are internships out there that don't meet those standards, but that also is federal, not state or city dependent if the specific location has higher standards.

That being said, I'm still confused as to how internships can do that even without considering the overtime component (which I agree is an unfortunate loophole).

 

[123EW]

Internship is a class, not a job, which is why there is a stipend and not a salary.

 

[MAClinician]

https://www.apa.org/ed/resources/labor-regulations.pdf

 

[ChannelingBobMarley]

https://www.apa.org/ed/resources/labor-regulations.pdf

Thank you!

 

[DynamicDidactic]

Is this accurate? Is there an APA-accredited internship that pays below minimum wage? I don't remember seeing a single one when I applied. I think the lowest salary was like 18k where I applied.

 

[psyche27]

Is this accurate? Is there an APA-accredited internship that pays below minimum wage? I don't remember seeing a single one when I applied. I think the lowest salary was like 18k where I applied.

It’s going to vary by jurisdiction. 18k would be under minimum wage in California.

 

[denimfan]

I mean tbh internships are a glorified exploitation of students. That said, unpaid internships are in every field so it’s an unending cycle.

 

[PsyDr]

This is one of those things where it’s likely that you could make a crap ton of money by suing. But you’d be blackballed from the entire profession.

 

[WisNeuro]

I mean tbh internships are a glorified exploitation of students. That said, unpaid internships are in every field so it’s an unending cycle.

You know that in the majority of circumstances, interns lose money for institutions? If anything, the exploitation is on supervisors who often are volunteering more (unpaid) time to supervise interns. If you really want to change the system, lobby congress to change some of the CMS laws about providing services to medicare/medicaid patients.

 

[Sanman]

You know that in the majority of circumstances, interns lose money for institutions? If anything, the exploitation is on supervisors who often are volunteering more (unpaid) time to supervise interns. If you really want to change the system, lobby congress to change some of the CMS laws about providing services to medicare/medicaid patients.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why a limited license was not approved for interns to bill from the beginning and post-docs a full license with the option of board certification. It would make the process much easier to navigate. As it is, the intern to license years can be a minefield.