Internship Pay Gap Widens as New EU Digital Rule Forces Stricter Staff Vetting
Published on 07/21/2026 at 16:45 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
While the Sparkasse Duisburg celebrated hiring all eleven of its trainees into permanent roles this July, a new study from the Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK Wien) released on 20 July exposes a far grimmer reality across the border. Nearly half of Austrian students — 49 percent — have completed an internship, and the share of mandatory placements has risen from 24 percent in 2019 to 29 percent today. But the pay situation is deeply uneven.
Gender plays a striking role. Among interns who receive compensation, 63 percent of men are paid, compared with just 42 percent of women — a 21-point gap. The AK is now pushing for stricter legal rules to close the disparity. The problem is most acute in health and education: 78 percent of mandatory healthcare internships go unpaid, along with 77 percent in medicine and 73 percent in teaching.
Meanwhile, the training market across Germany shows sharp regional contrasts. Hamburg listed about 120 internship positions in mid-July, with openings at GP Günter Papenburg AG and the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitverlag. In Nuremberg, 32 spots were available in office management at firms like Schaeffler Technologies and AWO Mittelfranken-Süd. Thuringia is a mixed picture: Weimar saw a two-percent rise in training places to 309, with a slight drop in applicants, while the Weimar district lost 19 percent of its supply — only 400 slots remain despite rising demand. The most sought-after roles are for office clerks and car mechatronics technicians.
Beyond traditional apprenticeships, human-resources departments face mounting pressure from specialised hires. Recent job postings include a team assistant in recruiting in Krefeld and an HR assistant in WeiĂźenfels. The public sector is also on the hunt: Wolters Kluwer in HĂĽrth advertised a content-development role for school management, and the Berlin police sought support for its IT leadership unit.
Since January 2025, financial institutions have had to comply with the EU’s DORA regulation, which mandates continuous monitoring of employees in critical ICT roles. Experts stress the need for global background screenings to meet operational-resilience requirements — a significant shift for HR teams that previously focused on recruitment alone.
Digitalisation and the skills shortage are reshaping company culture. A webinar organised by the Mannheim Chamber of Skilled Trades on 4 August plans to explore how “New Work” influences leadership and workplace culture, targeting managers and HR professionals.
The Sparkasse Duisburg’s outcome — all trainees moved into permanent contracts — shows that a well-structured training pipeline with clear career prospects can secure talent. But the Austrian data suggests that without regulatory reform, unpaid work will continue to undermine that goal for many young people, especially women and those entering healthcare.
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