Most DC wage-hike backers don’t even pay their interns

One of the most valuable things a college student can do is complement his or her education with a summer internship.

Across America, kids from all schools and backgrounds compete for these experiences and résumé-building opportunities.

For many, it is their first real job and a chance make a little money. It could also be their first experience in a professional work environment.

You wouldn’t know it, but one of the least rewarding places to intern over the summer is on Capitol Hill.

In 2017, most congressional interns are not even paid a few hundred dollars a week, according to a study conducted by Mic, an online news site, Capitol Hill, which controls the $18.5 trillion US economy and $20 trillion in US bonds, can’t even spare a few bucks to do the right thing for the next generation.

By some estimates, to outfit an intern to work in Washington costs $6,000. It is a very expensive city, in terms of housing. The kids need to be dressed “DC appropriate,” and anyone who has or knows a college kid, they consume calories even faster than politicians talk.

It is no small expense for any family, and the message the politicians are sending is a terrible one.

So it should come as no surprise that most of the co-sponsors of the Raise the Wage Act of 2017 — which would crank up the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour from $7.25 — do not pay their interns.

At at least 174 of the 184 bill co-sponsors — or 95 percent — hire unpaid interns, according to a recent Employment Policies Institute analysis. The duplicitous cheapskates won’t even pay them the very minimum they rail against in public.

These are the great examples, from our neighborhood: It’s Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). They all pay nothing.

Whether you like Bernie Sanders or not, he’s a standout on the Democratic side since he does pay his interns $12 an hour.

It’s sad that these politicians are not teaching the kids the value of a day’s work.