“With that extra money, all those excuses to not pay your interns goes out the window. Now that they have several hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s not that hard to set aside $20K to pay your interns,” said Carlos M. Vera, the group’s founder and executive director and himself a former unpaid House intern.

Different models

There is no standard for how much to pay interns. Many offices offer a stipend of varying amounts. But students who receive academic credit for their internship are often not permitted by their schools to also get paid.

For some offices, paying interns depends on the time of year.

According to Pay Our Interns, Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, for example, pays fall interns but not summer ones; her fellow Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina pays interns in the spring and fall, but not in the summer; Oklahoma Republican James M. Inhofe and Delaware Democrat Thomas R. Carper pay summer interns but not in the spring or fall.

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski offers two internship programs, one for college students and one for recent high school graduates, who apply while they are seniors. All receive stipends.