Do Interns Get Paid? J-1 Intern Pay by Field and State 2026

Most interns in the United States get paid. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 57% of internships held by the Class of 2024 were paid, and the average bachelor's-level intern earned $23.35 per hour as of summer 2025.

At Intrax Global Internships, we have sponsored J-1 visa interns and trainees at U.S. companies since 2003. Pay is the first question almost every candidate asks us. In this guide, we’ll break down J-1 intern salaries by field and state and explain how international applicants can land prestigious paid internships in the U.S.

Read on for the full picture, or if you already have a field and city lined up, use our intern pay calculator to estimate your earnings.

Intern pay in 2026 at a glance:

• $23.35/hour: Average wage for bachelor's-level interns (NACE 2026 Guide to Compensation, reflecting summer 2025 wages)
• 57%: Share of internships that were paid for the Class of 2024 (NACE 2024 Student Survey)
• $62,500 vs $42,500: Median starting salary for graduates who held paid internships versus unpaid (NACE position statement on unpaid internships)
• $7.25 to $18.40: The range of minimum hourly wages across U.S. jurisdictions in 2026 (U.S. Department of Labor and the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services)
• 63.1%: Share of interns who convert to full-time offers (NACE 2026 Internship & Co-op Report)

How Much Do Interns Get Paid in 2026?

Around $23.35 an hour.

That is NACE's employer-reported figure for bachelor's-level interns, published in the 2026 Guide to Compensation for Interns and Co-ops. At a full-time 40-hour week, $23.35 works out to roughly $4,000 a month before taxes.

You will see bigger numbers elsewhere (Glassdoor reports about $34 an hour), but those figures are often self-reported by interns, and the interns who report tend to skew heavily toward tech and finance.

NACE asks employers directly, across every industry. It is the most conservative number and the most representative one. However, it’s important to understand that your realistic number depends on your field and your city, which we’ll explore later in the article.

Why Some Internships Still Do Not Pay: The Legal Rules

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, interns at for-profit companies are generally considered employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime unless the internship meets the requirements of the primary beneficiary test laid out in DOL Fact Sheet #71.

The test asks who gets more out of the arrangement, the intern or the company.

Courts weigh seven factors, including: 

• Whether the internship provides training similar to an educational environment
• Whether it ties to academic credit
• Whether it accommodates the academic calendar
• Whether the intern's work complements rather than replaces paid employees
• Whether the parties understand there is no expectation of compensation
• Whether the internship's duration is limited to the period providing beneficial learning
• Whether the intern understands there is no entitlement to a paid job afterward

No single factor decides the ruling. 

If an internship primarily benefits the company, including by using the intern to perform work that would otherwise be done by paid employees, the intern is more likely to be considered an employee entitled to at least the applicable minimum wage. That is a federal floor of $7.25 an hour, though as you will see below, most competitive internship markets sit far above it.

Unpaid internships remain lawful mainly in education-heavy programs, government, and nonprofit settings where volunteering is permitted.

Do J-1 International Interns Get Paid?

Most J-1 interns in for-profit placements are paid, and their compensation is documented as part of the structured training program. 

For intern and trainee programs, the required Form DS-7002, Training/Internship Placement Plan, documents the placement, training objectives, supervision, and other key terms. The intern, host organization, and sponsor sign the plan before the sponsor issues the DS-2019.

J-1 regulations do not impose a blanket wage requirement on every host. But that does not mean a host can automatically offer an unpaid internship: federal, state, and local wage laws still apply. 

For-profit employers must generally pay interns who are considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), while unpaid internships may be lawful when the intern is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement.

• Full-time hours are required. Federal regulations require J-1 training and internship programs to run full-time, at a minimum of 32 hours per week. A paid placement therefore turns into real income rather than a few token hours a week.
• Paid placements follow U.S. wage law. A paid J-1 intern at a for-profit host is covered by the same FLSA minimum wage rules as an American intern. Intrax program rules go further than the regulations do: our placements pay at least the applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage, whichever is highest.
• You keep more of every paycheck. If you are a nonresident alien for U.S. tax purposes, you are generally exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes, which take 7.65% out of an American colleague's wages. You still owe federal and, usually, state income tax, and our guide to J-1 visa tax returns walks you through filing.

There is no single J-1 intern salary, in other words. Your field and your state set it, starting from the wage floors covered below.

Note for host companies: the DS-7002 pay fields are not a paperwork formality. Consular officers and sponsors both read them. A placement plan showing unpaid full-time work at a for-profit business invites hard questions under the primary beneficiary test. Setting a real wage protects you as much as it protects the intern.

Intern Pay by Field in 2026

Field moves your paycheck more than anything else does. Here is where the market sits in 2026, with sources noted, because intern pay data varies wildly by methodology.

• Software and tech: Most established tech companies pay $45 to $60 an hour, according to self-reported offer data on Levels.fyi. Top firms run higher. Google software engineering interns report about $63 an hour, roughly $10,900 a month, plus housing stipends. Meta's top rates reach $70 an hour for advanced-degree interns.
• Investment banking: Summer analysts are typically paid a prorated first-year analyst base of roughly $100,000 to $110,000 a year. During the program itself, that lands around $8,500 to $9,000 a month.
• Consulting: McKinsey business analyst interns report about $52 an hour, with the other major firms in a similar band.
• Engineering: Glassdoor estimates about $34 an hour for engineering interns. Employer-reported figures are closer to the NACE overall average.
• Hospitality and tourism: Pay tends to be closer to the minimum wage of the state where the property sits, which is why location matters so much in this field. See the state section below. Intrax premium hospitality internships at luxury hotels reach up to $30 an hour.
• Healthcare, marketing, media, nonprofits, and government: These internships span a wide range of compensation levels. Some paid roles fall near the national average, while others pay significantly more or less; unpaid arrangements may also be permitted in certain nonprofit and public-sector settings.

A caution on those numbers. Glassdoor and Levels.fyi figures are self-reported and lean toward the highest-paying employers, so treat them as ceilings, not averages. The NACE $23.35 figure remains the best picture of the whole market.

Intern Pay by State: Why Location Changes Your Paycheck

The same type of internship can pay differently from state to state because employers operate under different wage floors and local labor markets.

The floors alone span more than $11 an hour across U.S. jurisdictions in 2026:

• Washington, D.C.: $18.40 an hour as of July 1, 2026, the highest minimum wage in the country
• Washington State: A hospitality trainee at a hotel in Washington starts from the $17.13 statewide floor, although Seattle and other jurisdictions have higher local rates.
• New York: $17.00 in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester; $16.00 in the rest of the state
• Connecticut: $16.94
• California: $16.90 statewide, with many cities and sectors set higher
• Federal floor: $7.25, which still applies in about 20 states

Market averages follow the same geography. Zippia's estimated average internship salary puts the national average intern salary at $35,254 a year, or about $16.95 an hour. Alaska, Washington, Connecticut, and California are at the top of the table, while Louisiana, New Mexico, and Alabama sit at the bottom.

It’s easy to see why location matters for an international intern choosing between placements.

A hospitality trainee at a hotel in Seattle starts from a $17.13 floor. The same role in a federal-floor state can legally start from $7.25.

It’s important to balance that against cost of living, though, because the highest-paying states may also carry the highest rents. Our intern pay calculator lets you compare cities side by side before you commit.

Stipends vs Hourly Pay: How to Compare an Offer

Some internships pay a fixed stipend instead of an hourly wage. There is no reliable national benchmark for internship stipends comparable to NACE's hourly data, so the simplest way to compare offers is to convert the stipend into an approximate hourly rate.

NACE's 2026 average of $23.35 an hour works out to roughly $4,000 a month at 40 hours a week, or about $3,200 a month at the 32-hour weekly minimum for J-1 intern and trainee programs.

Three things to check before you sign:

1. Calculate the effective hourly rate. If you're offered a monthly stipend, divide the total compensation by the number of hours you expect to work. That makes it easier to compare a stipend with an hourly offer.
2. Look beyond base pay. Some employers offer housing, relocation, or other benefits in addition to base compensation. These extras can make a significant difference in the overall value of an internship.
3. Don't assume "stipend" means tax-free or exempt from wage laws. The tax treatment depends on what the payment represents, and taxable compensation may need to be reported to the IRS. For a for-profit internship, calling a payment a stipend does not by itself eliminate minimum-wage requirements. If the intern is considered an employee under the FLSA, applicable federal, state, and local wage laws still apply.

For J-1 interns, your sponsor's placement documentation should clearly describe the terms of your program. If an offer appears to fall below the applicable minimum wage for the work you're expected to perform, ask your sponsor and host company to clarify the arrangement before you accept it.

Paid vs Unpaid: What It Means for Your Career

NACE's position statement on unpaid internships, citing its 2022 Student Survey, found that graduates who held paid internships landed a median starting salary of $62,500, compared with $42,500 for those whose internships were unpaid. Paid interns also averaged 1.61 job offers before graduation, against 0.94 for unpaid interns and 0.77 for students with no internship at all.

And internships convert. 63.1% of 2024-25 interns received full-time offers from their host employer, the highest conversion rate NACE has recorded in five years.

Unpaid internships also filter out anyone who cannot afford to work for free. That is why NACE's official position calls for all internships to be paid.

An unpaid role can still make sense in a narrow set of cases. A nonprofit or government placement in a field you are committed to. A program dense with training and academic credit. A short project that opens a door nothing else will.

If you take one, set a time limit, get what you will learn in writing, and keep applying for paid roles. Our guide on how to get an internship covers positioning yourself for the competitive paid market.

How International Students Can Land a Paid U.S. Internship

The U.S. internship market is open to international candidates. The path runs through the J-1 visa and a designated sponsor, and the sequence is straightforward.

1. Confirm your eligibility. J-1 interns must generally be current post-secondary students or recent graduates who completed their studies within 12 months of the program start date. Trainees generally need a related degree or professional certificate plus at least one year of related work experience outside the U.S., or five years of related experience. See the full eligibility requirements.
2. Secure a placement. Apply directly to U.S. companies or work with a program that matches you with a suitable host organization. Our overview of U.S. internships for international students explains the options, and you can browse global internship programs across tech, business, hospitality, and education.
3. Confirm your compensation. Your sponsor and host organization should clearly establish the terms of your placement, including compensation when the position is paid. Intrax Global Internships documents compensation as part of its placement process.
4. Get sponsored and go. Your sponsor issues the DS-2019, you complete the visa steps, and you start earning from day one of your program.

Get a Paid U.S. Internship With Intrax Global Internships

Intern pay rewards the prepared.

Candidates who know the market rate for their field, pick their state carefully, and get compensation in writing often out-earn the ones who take the first offer that lands.

Intrax Global Internships has been a U.S. Department of State designated J-1 sponsor since 2003 and has placed more than 50,000 interns and trainees, from premium hospitality internships at luxury hotels to professional internships in tech and business. Every placement comes with pay documented before you fly.

Start with the intern pay calculator to see what your field and city should pay, explore visa sponsorship, or contact our team to talk through your placement.

Frequently Asked Questions About Intern Pay

Do interns get paid in the U.S.?

Yes, most interns in the U.S. are paid. According to NACE's 2024 Student Survey, 57% of internships held by the Class of 2024 were paid, with paid roles concentrated in business, tech, finance, and engineering, while unpaid positions cluster in nonprofits, government, and media. Whether a specific internship must be paid depends on the employer, role, applicable wage laws, and whether the intern is considered an employee under federal and state law.

What is the average internship stipend?

There is no single authoritative figure for the average internship stipend, since stipends vary widely by employer and are not tracked as a standalone category. The closest reliable benchmark is NACE's 2026 Guide to Compensation, which reports a wage of $23.35 per hour for bachelor's-level interns as of summer 2025, working out to roughly $4,000 per month for a full-time, 40-hour week before taxes. That monthly figure is a computed estimate based on the hourly wage, not a published stipend average.

What is the average paid internship salary in the U.S.?

Estimates vary because different sources measure different slices of the market. NACE's employer-reported figure, generally considered the most representative, puts the bachelor's-level intern wage at $23.35 per hour as of summer 2025, while Glassdoor's self-reported figure runs closer to $34 per hour and ZipRecruiter's job-posting-based estimate is $35,436 per year as of July 2026. Intrax Global Internships' intern pay calculator lets candidates filter by field and city for a more realistic estimate than any single national average.

How much do J-1 interns earn in the U.S.?

Many J-1 interns and trainees at for-profit host companies are paid, although J-1 regulations do not impose a blanket wage requirement. When an intern is considered an employee under the FLSA, applicable minimum-wage and overtime laws still apply. J-1 intern and trainee programs must be full-time, meaning at least 32 hours per week. If a J-1 intern is a nonresident alien for U.S. tax purposes, they are generally exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes on authorized program-related wages, although federal and state income taxes may still apply.

Is it legal for a company to not pay its interns?

Yes, in limited situations. Under the FLSA, for-profit employers must generally pay at least minimum wage and overtime unless the internship passes the Department of Labor's primary beneficiary test, outlined in DOL Fact Sheet #71, which weighs factors such as whether the program mirrors an educational environment, ties to academic credit, and complements rather than replaces paid staff. Unpaid internships can also be permissible in qualifying nonprofit and public-sector settings, as well as at for-profit employers when the intern is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement.

Do interns pay taxes on their stipend or salary?

Yes, intern pay counts as taxable income, although the tax treatment of stipends can vary depending on what the payment represents. J-1 interns who are nonresident aliens for U.S. tax purposes are generally exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes on authorized program-related wages, but may still owe federal and state income taxes.

Does intern pay vary by field and state?

Yes, significantly. Field is the strongest driver, with tech, investment banking, and consulting internships often paying well above the NACE average of $23.35 per hour, while nonprofit, government, and media roles tend to sit at or below it. State matters too, since 2026 minimum wages range from the federal floor of $7.25 per hour to $18.40 per hour in Washington, D.C., so identical roles can pay very differently depending on location.