Apprentice pay

A bit late to the party, I finally tuned in to “The Apprentice” to see what the buzz was about. In this NBC reality show, 16 people compete for the internship of a lifetime – a chance to snag a $250,000 job with real estate mogul Donald Trump.

Each week the male and female teams of Versacorp and Protégé Corp. are given a business challenge, such as developing an ad campaign or negotiating the lowest price for a scavenger hunt list of items. At the end of each episode, “The Donald” himself gives someone from the losing team the boot.

The show drew 215,000 applicants, but it would take more than $250,000 for some folks to participate, according to a survey from executive compensation firm Clark Consulting.

Clark polled 137 executives and employees from public companies and asked what it would take for them to work for Trump.

“Donald is giving new meaning to ‘playing your Trump Card.’  For many, working for him would be the ‘chance of a lifetime;’ for others, it is ‘not a chance I’ll work for him in this lifetime,'” says Tom Wamberg, chairman and CEO of Clark Consulting.

Of the respondents, 38% said they would need to be paid more than $250,000 to work for Trump. What’s more, 27% said that no amount of money would be enough for the job.

However, 10% were willing to work for free for the opportunity. Another 10% named their price as between $50,000 and $100,000, while 15% said they’d report to Trump for between $100,101 and $250,000.

For more information about Clark Consulting, go to http://www.clarkconsulting.com. For more information about “The Apprentice,” go to https://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Apprentice/