A majority of employers end up offering full-time jobs to their interns, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In fact, about 70% of interns land a job with their employer after their internship is over. Major companies, including General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, IBM, NBCUniversal, and all of the Big Four accounting firms, are known to hire a large percentage of their staff directly from their pool of interns.
Depending on the target industry, an internship could be a crucial step in landing a job, especially for those fresh out of college. However, the financial viability of interning can be a gamble, as internships tend to vary wildly in their pay rates – with many offering little to no compensation. (Here are the highest paying jobs you can get without a college degree.)
According to career search website Zippia, the average hourly wage for interns in New Jersey stands at $16.42, the 22nd highest among the 50 states.
Meanwhile, a recent report from online lender CashNetUSA found that 25.7% of all internships in New Jersey were unpaid as of August 2022, the sixth largest share of all states.
Click here to see a full list of the states where interns can make the most money.
To determine these rankings, CashNetUSA reviewed internship salary data from more than 100 U.S. industries. Average hourly pay for paid internships in each state was sourced from Zippia.
RankStateAvg. hourly intern pay ($)Unpaid internships as a share of total (%)1Washington20.9211.932California20.7825.793Connecticut20.3913.754Nevada18.894.955Oregon18.8826.916New York18.3827.037Delaware18.3133.548Massachusetts18.1515.889West Virginia17.827.5810Vermont17.758.3311North Dakota17.655.9712Hawaii17.4612.0513Wisconsin17.125.5614New Hampshire17.099.1815Maryland16.917.7816Minnesota16.885.0017Colorado16.864.7318Alaska16.809.8419Pennsylvania16.7515.6520Georgia16.7115.0121Arizona16.6810.0422New Jersey16.4225.6923Montana16.406.6724Michigan16.3611.1825Illinois15.9917.5726Idaho15.996.2527Virginia15.9810.8828Rhode Island15.8513.7929Ohio15.785.0030Maine15.7510.0031Texas15.329.4432South Dakota15.217.5833Utah15.097.6434Mississippi15.017.7735Florida14.7517.9436Missouri14.6910.0037North Carolina14.6817.5338Kentucky14.636.9239Nebraska14.614.2440Indiana14.4614.8941Tennessee14.268.3342Iowa14.006.1043Oklahoma13.9011.1144Arkansas13.795.7145Kansas13.514.2046South Carolina12.447.6447Alabama12.397.7648Louisiana12.129.9249New Mexico12.0326.6750Wyoming11.929.09