Bank of America Interns Offered No Say On Pay

Posted by Bess Levin, Jul 07, 2008, 10:06am

Bank of America interns are apparently being paid by the hour this year (as they were last), though this time it's based on a 65 hour week, up from last summer's 40. Not sure if this is punishment for not being able to eat a measly four egg McMuffins in under fifty minutes, but the seasonal employees were informed of the additional fifteen after their arrival, and the monumental failure took place maybe only a couple days in, so it certainly seems plausible. The 65 hour week is for investment banking interns; those in capital markets start collecting overtime after 55.

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Posted in: Bank of America
Tags: interns

Comments

1

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 10:10AM

It's definetely related to severe deficits in Egg McMuffin-related competencies.

2

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 11:36AM

Should I feel bad? Analysts are a waste of resources, especially if they can't entertain me with some good old hazing. Has anyone looked up how much the Bear Stears analysts are getting paid?

oh wait...

3

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 11:43AM

Boo hoo. Maybe they should run upstairs to Daddy's office and tell him those meanies are getting in the way of their god-given right to slack off for the bare-minimum amount of time per week.

4

Posted by Anal_yst , Jul 07, 2008 11:48AM

Ja, shedding not any tears am I, until they're signing up for unpaid internships (or, gasp, getting a 'traditional' summer job), they're still making out FAR better than many others

5

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 11:48AM

Many of the interns are not serious career seakers, just looking to make some money anywhere. At least the employer has the right to get some work out of them (they rarely pay their way).The 65 is a good way to help filter out the more dedicated interns.

6

Posted by Investorcluzo , Jul 07, 2008 12:14PM

seriously people, does gs or ms (or mother merrill) do this? hourly wages, did they sign up for commercial banking or investment banking. when I was a summer, we were paid a salary and then given a performance based bonus at the end. this is pure nonsense. way to go kenny, once again showing your investment banking prowess. probably why he still doesn't have a series 7 license...

7

Posted by StMarc , Jul 07, 2008 12:15PM

Wait, what?

How can you pay somebody hourly based on a 65-hour base week?* Especially in that bastion of Labor, NY State?

I smell class-action.

M

*Obviously you can write the CONTRACT to say that. The thing is, a contract doesn't make you an exempt employee: either you are, or you're not. If you're not, overtime starts at forty, please and thank you.

8

Posted by Anal_yst , Jul 07, 2008 12:15PM

@ Cluzo

While that may be true, in the context of our times, they're lucky they didn't just cancel most or all of the intern program outright. Beggars can't be choosers or some such line

9

Posted by Debter , Jul 07, 2008 12:16PM

isn't that illegal. I believe the fed's have mandated that anything over 40hrs is considered overtime. Couldn't any company then just set their work week at 100hrs, thus not paying overtime at all? Back when I was in highschool and working on lay-barges in the Gulf (of Mexico, not the Middle East) we were paid time and a half for everything over 40hrs. We were working 7, 12's.

10

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 12:25PM

@12:16 Spot-on bro. Back when I was in middle school helping out in Kuwait (actually a carrier stationed in the Gulf) I was paid twice (!!!) for everything over 40 hrs.

11

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 12:54PM

St Marc is right--

you either are, or are not, exempt. And 40 hours is the magic number.

12

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 12:55PM

St Marc is right--

you either are, or are not, exempt. And 40 hours is the magic number.

13

Posted by Debter , Jul 07, 2008 1:26PM

@ 12:25, don't call me, guy.

14

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 2:37PM

@1:26 I am not your guy, buddy.

15

Posted by guest , Jul 07, 2008 2:44PM

I would guess that this is illegal. Why not report it to the Department of Labor, Division of Wage and Hour Standards? You can make an employee a salaried worker and bypass wage and hours restrictions, but you can't make a worker an hourly worker and require a minimum of 65 hours without overtime protection kicking in at forty hours.

Just call up DOL and lodge a complaint. It's good for your backbone.

16

Posted by Investorcluzo , Jul 07, 2008 3:21PM

@anal_yst: while beggars can't be choosers, assuming the analysts were told "a" and made the decision to join bofa based on those facts, then were given "b" when they showed up - they have the right to b*tch. bofa does not have a monopoly on the ib job market, they should be held to the same standards as everyone else. if you want to recind offers, so be it. perhaps it's the charlotte mafia that need to develop a spine...

17

Posted by StMarc , Jul 07, 2008 4:38PM

I'd like to add that as a fairly free-market kind of guy, if BoA wants to make such an offer and interns want to accept it, I don't know that it's any of my business. The Inspector has it right in that if this deal were imposed *after,* that's slimy, but if it were offered and accepted, that's that so far as I'm concerned.

However, what *I* think doesn't matter, what matters is the labor laws, and I don't know of any state where you can penalize an exempt employee for missing extra hours - or any hours at all! - and still claim that they are exempt.

For instance, when my wife was running a store, they expected managers to be in the store 44 hours a week because of their weird shift scheduling parameters, and managers did "clock in" through the register like the hourlies. However, if you only worked forty, or even thirty-six, they didn't dock you - that would have voided the exempt status of the managers. (If you didn't work enough shifts eventually you got in trouble of varying kinds, but that's allowed.)

M

18

Posted by Anal_yst , Jul 07, 2008 4:41PM

@ cluzo

I agree if that is indeed the case (have we any confirmation that is how it went down?), I'd simply hate to think HR @ any bank would be so stupid so-as to leave themselves so open to litigation

(clearly I'm joking, before some numbnuts jumps down my throat)

19

Posted by Investorcluzo , Jul 07, 2008 5:51PM

who knows how it went down, it just went down (and that was wrong). either you're exempt or you're hourly. the story is that the charlotte mafia doled out 2x what they thought they would last summer, so they upped the hours considered "regular" this summer. perhaps they should have just lowered the hourly wage - given the lack of work on the street, they probably would have done better. now they will just have a bunch of scared interns waiting around for their seemless web meals to take to the monday night movie in bryant park (now that they have moved to the new building).

20

Posted by guest , Jul 16, 2008 12:06AM

These are the numbers. 60K / 2,080 hrs* = $28.85 per hour. This pay rate in the policy of 65 regular hours** per week translates into $1,875 a week. After tax and 401 (assm. to be 40%), bofa newbies are getting $4,500 of monthly disp. income (compare this to 1.the $9,000 net of tax that they were getting during last summer and 2.the pay of $2,769.23 net of tax that current 1st year analysts everywhere in the street are receiving on a monthly basis. Too bad training doesnt last forever.

After I read some blogs about 'smelling a class action litigation', it made me wonder... Some people out there really don't know what they are talking about. Honestly, the rates are too good for any type of dissidence to exists.

But anyway, I agree that the McMuffin story is a disgrace.


*2,080 hrs = 40 hrs/week * 52 weeks
** overtime during training is not only reflective of someone's ability to function effectively but also must be reviewed by senior personnel.

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