Yes, I received more money per paycheck as an intern than as a full time employee.
Now, why is that? Assume we make 100,000$ a year as a full time employee. Sounds like a lot of money? Not if you’re in the bay area..
Thanks CA taxes… well kind of. The tax rate of an individual making ~ 18,000$ in California is roughly 2,000$ in taxes. Thus, for a 3 to 4 month internship, interns can roughly get 4,000$ per month in take home salary.
Retirement Contributions…. Interns never had to worry about this (other than roth ira). Suppose we max out retirement contributions within the 401k bucket. That’s 58,000$ (as of 2021) taken out of employment salary.
What about health insurance….you can also contribute 3,600 per year to health savings account for health insurance.
Employee stock purchase plan. IF your company offers this, up to 15% per paycheck may be contributed towards company stock purchase.
Now reviewing all the possible buckets of contributions as a full time employee.
We start out with 100,000.
Take out 19,500 for 401k contributions. 71,500$ left.
Take out 17,600 for taxes. 53,900$ left.
Take out 37,500 for 401k roth conversions. 16,400$ left.
Take out 3,600 for HSA. 12,800$ left.
Take out 15,000 for ESPP. -2,200$ left.
Yup that’s right. Theoretically, I would be paying the company 2,200$ at the end of the year rather than making any money on my paycheck. Sigh….why is retirement so hard. I haven’t even paid rent :(