Study reveals finance internships amongst highest paid
With unemployment levels predicted to rise to 2.6 million by mid-2021, it is more important than ever before for students and graduates to consider internships.
Indeed.co.uk states that the average internship salary across the UK is £20,715 per year, but often interns receive half of that. With that in mind, scouring over 1,000 intern positions, Invezz.com were intrigued to find out which job sectors pay the most and least when it comes to internships.
Highest Paid Intern Roles
Taking second place are roles within the business sector as applicants receive an average monthly salary of £1,550. Roles listed on the job platform include business strategist intern, business development intern and global strategic intern.
The third highest paid intern role is in finance with an average salary of £1,500 per month. Internship opportunities vary between accounting, banking, and stockbroking. Number-savvy interns who decide to pursue a career in finance can earn 19.3% more than the average intern salary!
In fourth place is an internship in research which can pay on average £1,450 per month. Indeed.co.uk offers roles such as trading research intern, AI research intern and research and development intern.
Making the top five highest paid internships is a role in web development – interns can earn an average salary of £1,440 per month. Content creator intern, data science intern and software engineer intern are some of the roles available online to students and graduates.
Lowest Paid Intern Roles
Invezz.com were also intrigued to find out which internship roles on Indeed are currently the lowest paid.
Five Lowest Paid Internships on Indeed | Average Salary Per Month |
Fashion | £600.00 |
Marketing | £800.00 |
Sales | £950.00 |
Design | £1,200.00 |
HR | £1,380.00 |
Marketing roles place in second with an average pay of £800 per month. These internships cover an array of job roles in digital marketing, PR, and communications. Like fashion, the monthly average salary is below the national living wage as it is nearly twice as likely to underpay.
Taking third place are sales intern roles with an average salary of £950 per month. Sales roles are known to be commission-based, therefore the base average salary of £950 per month may reflect differently depending on the business and candidate’s individual skill set.
County Internship Salaries
English county | Average annual salary | **Monthly breakdown |
Derbyshire | £22,500 | £1,578 |
West Midlands | £22,406 | £1,573 |
Greater London | £21,163 | £1,503 |
Avon | £19,885 | £1,430 |
Hampshire | £19,817 | £1,426 |
Cambridgeshire | £19,750 | £1,422 |
Hertfordshire | £19,451 | £1,406 |
Nottinghamshire | £18,187 | £1,334 |
Oxfordshire | £17,927 | £1,319 |
Berkshire | £17,814 | £1,313 |
Surrey | £17,702 | £1,306 |
West Yorkshire | £17,669 | £1,305 |
West Sussex | £17,500 | £1,295 |
Warwickshire | £17,500 | £1,295 |
Cheshire | £17,333 | £1,286 |
Lancashire | £17,214 | £1,279 |
Essex | £16,687 | £1,249 |
Invezz.com also uncovered the highest paid internship locations. The results are as follows…
Scottish county | Average annual salary | Monthly breakdown |
Lanarkshire | £20,919 | £1,489 |
City of Edinburgh | £19,950 | £1,434 |
Aberdeenshire | £17,422 | £1,291 |
West Dunbartonshire | £15,297 | £1,170 |
Talveer Sandhu from TheKnowledgeAcademy.com commented:
“The job market is competitive, which is why internships are a proactive stage of attaining that necessary experience for a step on the career ladder. In the past, internships have received negative press with many employers not paying their interns accordingly, so it is reassuring to see that many industries are breaking through that stereotype. However, it is still abundantly clear that certain sectors need to pay their interns more fairly with a realistic living wage.”
Methodology:
Invezz.com scoured Indeed.co.uk’s internship positions to collate the location and salary of all job postings and subsequently calculated monthly salary averages. With the job roles not advertising a salary, Invezz searched further or assumed that it did not pay or only offered travel expenses. All data was collected on 30/11/2020 and is accurate as of then.
Annual salary after tax and monthly breakdowns were calculated with Reed.co.uk’s Tax Calculator
*Monthly living wage calculated as (UK living wage £9.30 x 37.5 hours worked per week) * 4 = £1,395 per month.