BK Report
CHEAP LABOUR...? Words Jonas Althuis
The infamous internship, you've heard the horror stories: a gruelling period of hard work for little to no pay. Tireless hours spent on minute details in Revit models, endless sun-studies and Lumion renders that few people will ever see. The implicit expectation to stay at the office late, working unpaid overtime. Work that you spent hours on, disregarded by your supervising architect, who has already changed their mind but not yet informed you. Perhaps not the exciting and inspiring reality of architectural design you hoped it would be. But those are just horror stories right? Just the exception? One bad experience among a plethora of good ones? Right?
"At the time, I thought it was a fair amount", a fellow student tells me, reflecting on an internship they did three years ago, "it was my first time getting a salary, so any amount of money was exciting. Looking back on it now, I would really find it too little." A different student tells me how frustrating it is not getting paid at her current internship, "my enthusiasm decreases by the day", she says. I know she's joking, but I also know there must be some truth to what she tells me. These and many more messages like it are what I received when I asked a number of my peers, all students at our faculty, for their thoughts and feelings about the internships they have done. Despite internships being a nearly integral part of our current education, it seems we haven't reached common ground on what they should really be. For all the potential an internship has on paper, it seems my fellow students are often disappointed and disillusioned by the reality. Numbers In the vein of 'Cheap', the central question I asked was: 'how much did you get paid per month at your internship?' The follow up question: 'did you find this a fair payment for the work you did?' Across 61
different internships done in seven different European countries by 46 students, the average pay, adjusted for number of hours worked per week, was €477 per month. Of these 61, five internships were completely unpaid, though for one of these travel expenses were compensated. Of course, cost of living varies per country. In the Netherlands, where 51 of these 61 internships were done, the average salary was €498 per month. Rounding this up, I think it's fair to say that a large portion of internships that students at our faculty do pay €500 per month for a 40 hour week. To put that into perspective, in the Netherlands, the minimum wage is calculated based on your age; at the age of 21 or older, minimum wage is €9,82 per hour. Assuming you work a full-time, 40 hour per week position, this means you would earn approximately €1700 a month before taxes. If you're over 21, €500 per month is 29,4% of the minimum wage, less than one-third. Say you work an average of 21 days per month rounded down, which is the case for everyone that works a standard 40 hour week, that means you theoretically work 168 hours per month. That comes down to €2,98 per hour, a
11
