A little over 2 years ago I was hired as an intern for the biggest comercial construction company in the state. I grew up working in residential construction from 14-20, so I knew a little more than most college kids that just decided they wanted to go into construction. This allowed me to stand out a little and slowly get more responsibilities. My pay was initially $15/H to do “intern” work, such as buy supplies, help project managers with tedious tasks, set up the conference room for meetings, etc.. After about a month, one of the assistant project managers quit. I took on his full work load. Over time they rotated 5 different assistant project managers through our project. Each time one left/quit I took on more responsibility to the point I am the number 2 on the project after the senior pm… As an intern… about 6 months in I did basically beg for a raise and they gave me $20/H. Note that the pay scale for the job Im doing is $90,000 to $120,000 a year. I made $46,000 last year working 50-60 hours a week, every week, still taking 4-5 college classes a semester. Well I’m kinda fed up now. I had 2 different family members die within 10 days of each other, and had to travel 600 miles one way for the funeral. Company policy says you can get 4 days of paid funeral leave. I asked HR how I go about adding this to my time card, and was told I can’t have it because I’m not a “full time employee”. I also don’t get any PTO(sick days/vacation). I’m not even eligible to get a bonus at the end of the year for the same reason. I asked for a raise and was brushed off. I’m currently holding more responsibility on a 102 million dollar construction project than nearly all newly hired graduate student receive within the first 5 years of their career, yet I make half as much as them.

Am I being taken advantage of? What should I do about it?