Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, I was hired by a company where I did an internship and was actually paid slightly less as a full-time employee than as an intern (more benefits, though). As an intern I made $40/hr, hired full-time at $80k/yr.
$40/hr is a pretty ridiculous salary for an intern, good for you, man. Maybe you, personally, were worth that much, but on average, it's at least double of what the companies should be paying to interns. Heck, $15/hr should be fine.
It was certainly the high end (I think the range was $20-40), but relatively common for graduate students (edit: in this geographic area).