Internships just kinda suck.
Like sure I'm probably not as good as the other Devs but knowing I'm getting over 5x less pay than anyone else in the room hurts.
Salaried and it works out at less than minimum wage if you convert it to hourly. Honestly what the fuck.
The experience im getting has been good but having to continue being on a student loan while working 38.5 hours a week is outrageous. Living in an already expensive city and I'm probably spending 10% of my pay on lunch in the office's canteen.

As an intern, you’re there to LEARN. If you’re making 5x less than the other devs, you also have 5x less expectations on you to bring in revenue. Basically, you’re an investment with a potential return.

If I were you I’d start making some lunch boxes while setting out to prove to your benefactors that you deserve to get hired.

@HughRant Still sucks.

I liked my internship, bossing other interns around (read teaching and own projects)

@HughRant nope. He's not an investment. Investments are those things you pay. He's working for less than minimal wage so he is an investor, not an investment.

@Pickman yes they are investments. Interns cost way more than just salary. Insurance costs, physical space, hardware all those kinds of things do count as well in the total costs.

Then if you see what an average intern per money can do it is way less than a regular employee per money

@Codex404 if he could gain more than that right now then he is spending money to be there. Consider that hardware stays with the company (so you can't say it's part of the investment in the person) and that office space is still there if the person is not (so except if you have someone else to fill the space with it's still lost money).
Now, these considerations are why internships are supposed to exist. None with a sane mind would take an intern if he could just hire someone else who already has the skills.
Except if you do not need skill because the work you need is dumb at the moment (nothing wrong with that by the way).
One thing I love is how you did not mention training in the costs you presented. You considered office space costs before training. Please bear in kind that if you want a good outcome from an internship (or even from a junior hire) training is very relevant.

@Pickman

Taking a loan and time off for college is an investment. You don’t get paid for it, but you hope that it will eventuellt pay off.

You could argue that taking an internship is a step on that same way. However, as an intern with minimum wage or not, you are now getting PAID.

Still, you are now but a prospect in the eyes of an employer and the reason why they are paying you so LITTLE is because you lack enough experience and/or knowledge.

In short, as an intern you are a gamble.
No sane company would pay more than they’d have to for that.

@HughRant of course. I would just like companies to remember that interns are also taking a gamble, and usually they have less money to gamble. I've seen several times companies acting like they were doing a favor to interns for having them. Just like any position it's a partnership, not a gift.

@Pickman Very true, those companies most definitely exist. I like the framing ”partnership”, I think that’s exactly what it is.

@Swan still sucks but I agree with @HughRant you’re at least getting paid. I never got paid but the experience got me something better after the company tried to hire me but couldn’t cos they didn’t have funds for new hires.