So why even bother having interns?

It's beyond my pay scale to know why they are used.

As far as i know they typically do not get any benefits that would be provided to a full time employee. Healthcare etc.

While I think that is probably true in most cases there do appear to be some exceptions.

The Best Internships For 2014 - Forbes

As far as health care goes there may also be some legal issues regarding needing to provide it for interns who are, in some companies, effectively full time employees on a 3 month fixed duration contract. Certainly, for large companies like Google, Facebook etc the incremental cost of adding a young (and most likely healthy) person for 3 months is going to be minimal compared to the perceived value of the benefit.

My last employer hired summer interns, who were paid a good rate of pay. It was really a 12 week interview. I don't know if they were given health insurance, but if you're under 26 then you're likely to be on your parents' policy now anyway.

The numbers sound about right given that the median salary in Silicon Valley is $150k.

Around where I am, it seems most are unpaid, or if they are, it's expenses.

Games industry is generally really shit with money too...plus there are a lot of computers that need switching on and off...

Same here. It's the main reason we use 'em. Free labour.

People with real skills though, like programmers and engineers CAN get real money even out of school.

Yes....but depending on the location, they can also get nothing but perhaps the parking paid or a free lunch :/

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We get labor. They get experience.

If we wanted to pay a salary, we would just hire somebody.

Though I wonder if people are making a difference between a intern who is doing a work placement for college credits, which is different to one who has graduated and doing a internship as part of a works experience type intro program.

The former, definitely don't get paid here, the latter, aren't considered interns and do get paid.

The guys who interned for me were there for experience, and I expected them to contribute as a result of the experience. It seems to me many people don't expect any contribution from the intern to the process of the company. Where you DO expect a contribution, you are honour bound to pay them.

Most people do expect them to contribute and they are not honour bound to pay them, it depends if the state says that they must be paid.

Here, if they're getting school credit, they do not need to be paid and many are not.

The expectation is that if they are any good and do actual work, that they would be head of the line for a job interview once they graduate and apply for a full time position.

Exactly this.