[netmilsmom]

Oh for Heaven’s Sake!
Internships are the way to get experience before getting a job.

[SC Swamp Fox]

The article and most of the comments below it miss the real point...Why is it the government's business what a company is willing to pay and a college student is willing to accept for a "summer job"?

We are in a rural area, we have to pay our interns if we expect any with potential to apply. We use our internships as a recruiting tool, as a way to get local kids who have gone off to Engineering schools interested in a job with us back in their hometown. It's much harder to lure candidates that don't have ties to the area.

[Tupelo]

Sorry Derek, but there are damn few CEO positions available to class of ‘12 graduates. I know interns have to do grunt work that CEOs don't, but that really is life. My guess is for most an internship will provide a much better future than starting out as a janitor.
My start was not as an intern but as a low paid (very low paid) apprentice.
So suck it up.