These companies pay interns more than $8,000 a month
Some lucky interns can earn a pretty penny while learning their trade at some of America's best-known companies. As they battle it out for young talent, technology stalwarts Nvidia, Facebook and LinkedIn all offer interns median monthly pay of at least $8,000 a month, according to a new survey from job-search site Glassdoor.
Nvidia, a Silicon Valley maker of computer graphics cards and other gear, pays interns a median salary of $8,811 a month, putting it on top of Glassdoor's list of the highest-paying internships for 2021. Glassdoor researchers see the data as a bright spot in a labor market still healing from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
"There are still several employers paying their interns really competitive salaries — some even paying over $8,000 a month — and part of the reason they're willing to pay really high salaries is they face a lot of competition when it comes to hiring great talent," Amanda Stansell, an economic data scientist at Glassdoor, told CBS MoneyWatch. "Even in the midst of COVID-19, great talent is still great talent, and it's hard to come by."
Glassdoor based its analysis on salary reports from at least 30 current and former interns at each company who held positions between March 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021.
Other top internships
For young people aspiring to a career in finance, an internship at Capital One offers median pay of more than $7,500 per month, while spots at American Express and wealth management giant BlackRock offer roughly $6,600. Newcomers to Glassdoor's list include networking site LinkedIn, where the median monthly pay for interns is just over $8,000; online payments system PayPal ($6,359 a month); and refining company Marathon Petroleum ($5,512).
Though tech and financial firms dominate the list of top-paid internships, these companies also hire for marketing and communications, recruiting and other types of roles.
"You don't need to know how to code in Python and JavaScript to be able to land a job at a tech company," Stansell said. "Software engineering internships might pay more than a marketing internship, but across the board these companies pay their interns very well."
Employers dangle dollars to attract top candidates. Yet previous Glassdoor research shows that when it comes to long-term satisfaction, workers put more emphasis on a company's culture, values, leadership and opportunities for advancement.
Click here to see Glassdoor's full list of top paying internships.