What determines an intern's value?

What's an internship worth? Free labor for a business? Valuable experience to help a recent college graduate get a job upon graduation? Or is it a commodity a company should be willing to pay for?

In most instances, it's all of the above.

Most students at Southeast Missouri State University are required to complete an internship before graduation. An internship is like a "trial run" to make sure the job the student takes as an intern is really suited to her.

The student is getting valuable work experience he can leverage into a real job. But what about money?

"The majority are paid," said Jack Sterrett, professor of management and marketing at Southeast. "There are some difficulties when you get in with a not-for-profit that doesn't have the budget to support an intern, but some of them do pay. The majority of the students placed in a for-profit organization are being paid."

Students in the fashion and merchandising area of the university usually take their internships working in local retail stores, particularly during the fall semester to help stores with the Christmas shopping rush and to get valuable work experience. They're paid the same as a store employee, said a spokesman from that department.

Because they work part-time, interns do not earn benefits, but some earn minimum wage. Others are paid more, depending on the nature of the job and the extent of the interns' abilities.

"The student does bring a lot of talent to the table," Sterrett said. "It's not just a one-sided thing. They're getting more than just a run-of-the-mill worker."

Students in technological disciplines, such as computer industry, have specialized, up-to-the-minute skills that have value that should be compensated, Sterrett said. Other students may find value just in gaining the experience.

"If the company is not paying and the student still wants to do that type of internship that's fine," Sterrett said. "We work that through. What we're up against many times is a number of students who are talented in a particular area. They're very creative and really should be paid more than just minimum wage. In some cases they have been paid very well."

While such an arrangement benefits the company and the student, other employees at the company may not see the situation in the same way.

"What we're up against is some of the employees have been with the firm and are making [less than the intern]," Sterrett said. "The company has to keep that in perspective. A company is not going to pay a part-timer more than a full-timer."

Cindy Gage, senior account executive with Red Letter Communications in Cape Girardeau, says Red Letter has a history of hiring interns, and pays them depending on what job they do.

"We usually pay them minimum wage or a little more than that," she said.

A not-for-profit group is not always in a position to pay an intern, nor is it always possible for a NFP to hire an intern full-time after graduation.

Chuck Martin, director of Cape Girardeau's Convention and Visitors Bureau, says interns there don't get a salary, but are usually paid a stipend at the end of their internship. How large a stipend depends on the nature of the job and the amount available for a stipend.

Martin added that he also tries to give interns something of value that doesn't translate into cash.

"I do everything I can to help them launch a successful placement," he said.

A business manager who wants to consider hiring an intern should contact the chairman of the department at Southeast most closely connected to the business.