Wells Fargo halved US interns' hourly pay if they work more than 40 hour weeks

20 February 2026

2 minute read

Wells Fargo is growing its investment bank, but it is being careful with pay for US interns.

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Last year, Wells Fargo's investment bankers had their best year ever, as noted by the Wall Street Journal. The Financial Times says the bank has hired 125 managing directors since 2019 and that it plans to hire another 27 or so this year. And yet, Wells Fargo risks upsetting its investment banking interns.

Wells Fargo declined to comment for this article, but incoming US interns at its investment bank say they've been informed that they will receive a fixed rate of pay up to 40 hours a week, plus a supplementary hourly rate when they work beyond that. The supplementary rate will be 50% of regular pay.

For the standard 40 hour week, Wells Fargo's investment banking interns will receive $2.1k. This is equivalent to $52 an hour. But when they work more than 40 hours, they will receive at most $26 for each extra hour. The policy does not apply in California.

Goldman Sachs is understood to operate a similar policy. This has not been confirmed and it's not clear how long it's been in operation for.

The change means that interns who might have received an extra $1.6k a week for working 70 hours, will now only receive an extra $780. They are understandably unhappy as a result.

Most investment banks increased analyst salaries during the pandemic and hiked intern pay in proportion to this. Now it seems that banks are looking for methods of massaging pay back down again.

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