[ultimoo]

As someone who did a summer internship last year at an amazing SF company, the pay-scale at fogcreek sounds pretty competitive (read amazing).

$6,000 a month comes to a shade less than $40/hour. Bear in mind that most full time students work only in summers so although considerable federal tax is deducted from this amount, the intern is likely to receive most of it back when filing taxes next year.

Also, catered lunches plus an apartment in NYC plus two amazing events in twice a week (which likely include dinner) means that the only money that needs to be spent is a handful of weekday dinners plus weekend fun, and I haven't even gotten to the thousand dollar signing bonus yet!

Being in college, I knew about 10-12 others who interned last summer in the Bay Area. With most companies in the SF Bay Area you're looking at about $27 to $34 at most large companies in the south bay and $35 to $40 in SF. Plus an hourly pay scale means that interns don't get paid on holidays like 4th of July, Labor Day, or when they get sick (didn't know anyone who got paid monthly instead of hourly in the Bay Area). I haven't heard of housing benefits in the south bay much and heard of only one company in SF that threw in free housing.

(Sorry about a long comment focusing only on the financial aspects of an internship program but it is an important factor that debt-ridden students take into account).

[yen223]

$6000 a month is more than what most senior software engineers earn here, before considering currency conversions. You guys are lucky man.

[xyzzyz]

Google and Facebook both hire their interns on exempt positions, so they aren't hourly. They also pay around $6800-$7000/mo, not including benefits.

[ConnorBoyd]

I did an hourly internship last summer and got 4th of July off, paid. It must depend on the company.