Reference no: EM132447230

Harry Potter readers will recall the house elves who work in the kitchen at Hogwarts.  They would never think of asking to be paid.  Hermione finds this outrageous.  "This is slavery!".  She contends.  Of course, Harry Porter is fantasy. Or is it ?

Gred Petouvis, a junior at Cornell University, worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity commission in Washington, DC, during a recent summer.  The job included performing site compliance visits at several companies, interviewing people who filed discrimination complaints, determining whether complaints had merit, and settling disputes.  The work was very similar to that done by full time EEOC filed analysis.  IN fact, the agency manager reported that Gred was one of the to[p field analysts.  But Gred received no pay.  Not even a housing allowance for living in Washington, DC, during two and one half summer months.

Trent Mayberry, from the University of Minnesota, worked for the city of Saint Paul on its "Peanuts on Parade." Promotion.  (Saint Paul is the birthplace of Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip).  Trent was paid $9 per hour.  Krista Lehmkuhl from Notre Dame helped design the cover for this textbook while an intern at McGraw-Hill.  McGraw pays their interns about $12 an hour.

Hope Wagner, from the University of Nebraska, worked in media relations for a professional sports team on summer.  She drafted news releases, filed clippings, and worked on a 75 page media guide.  She took home plenty of team souvenirs-coffee mugs key chains, T shirts - but not one cent.

The giant chip maker Intel pays undergraduate interns between $450 and $750 a week and losses in a free rental car during the summer.  General Motors doesn't provide the car, but it does pay $450 to $600 a week and provide paid vacation days, round trip travel, plus health insurance.  The Late Show with David Letterman pays nothing, yet claims to receive over 800 applications for 3- unpaid summer intern positions.

So are house elves alive and well ?

• What do employers receive from summer interns?  What returns do students get from the opportunities?
• Should summer interns be paid?  If so, how much?  How would you recommend that an employer decide the answers to both these questions?
• What added information would you like to have before you make your recommendation s?  How would you use this information?

Sources:  America's Top internships and The Internship Bible, both part of the Princeton Review series published by Random House.