It is recommended that employers pay their co-op students a percentage
of the entry-level salary of a B.S. level engineer. This keeps the
students' wages in line with other employees. It is not advisable to
overpay or underpay co-ops in relationship to the rest of the
employer's work force.
Specifically, we recommend that first work period co-ops be
paid 60 percent of the entry level wage and that the salary be
increased to 70 - 75 percent for the second and third work periods. In
the final work period, it is recommended that co-ops be paid 80 - 85
percent of an entry-level salary.
This plan allows the employer to make a significant increase in salary
to the co-op student upon graduation and still be within their existing
pay scale. Increasingly, it has been observed that co-op employers are
offering signing bonuses to their co-ops at the time of graduation.
While this is not mandatory, it may increase the retention rate of co-ops.
Information on salaries paid to new college graduates can be obtained from the co-op office.
Co-op raises are almost always tied to the completion of more
education and given at the beginning of each work term. An analysis of
our active employers indicates that co-op raises tend to occur in one
of two ways:
1. Employers with large co-op programs have established pay
rate for sophomores, for juniors, and for seniors. Raises are not given
until enough course work is completed to move the student to the next
class standing. (In these situations, NU students only get one raise
during their co-op experience because they typically do not begin a co-op assignment until they have achieved junior status.)
2. Most co-op employers tie co-op pay increases to the
completion of additional coursework. (In these situations, some NU
students must provide transcripts upon return to work to document
before they become eligible for a pay increase. Most employers take the
student's word that they have completed one or two more quarters of
work.)
It is our recommendation that co-op students receive pay
increases at the beginning of each work term, not each work quarter. We
do never recommended increases midway through a six month work term.
Our 6 month work terms approximate semester work terms and there are no
pay increases midway through a semester work period; therefore, we
would not expect employers to raise our co-op students' salaries midway
through a six month work term.
