Should undergraduate researchers expect payment? I'm about a junior-senior in college and got the chance for an interesting lab that's conducting research information theory, where the role would be to help write ML model code. This is an area of interest for me and I think I could learn a lot from it.

I want to know if it's reasonable to expect to be paid, because this position doesn't compensate. I've heard of some positions that are and some that aren't. Money isn't that big of an issue but it's a nice to have. There are part time jobs I've been considering and admit that if I were to receive payment, I would probably spend more time doing research on this than working on my own projects. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn, disclaimer, I know I'm not entitled to anything.

I know it's related to and I don't want to open up the argument for should interns be paid. But are undergraduate researchers normally paid?
Usually, undergraduate research assistant positions are compensated in two ways: 1) academic credit or 2) hourly wage.

From my own personal experiences, paid undergraduate research assistantships are hard to come by. In the United States, a lot of these positions are considered "work studies" where it's considered an on-campus, part-time employment. However, even then, a lot of these positions were restricted to lower-income students who were able to document financial need. Usually, the research labs would be using their research grants to fund these paid positions. As many people in academia may know, research funds are also hard to come by. A lot of labs may have limited funds that they prioritize for hiring more important positions like Graduate Research Assistants/Associates or Lab/Project Managers.

Undergraduate Research Assistant positions compensated via academic credit are much more common since they allow for students to take fewer classes (and also saves the lab's funds).

However, when neither options are given, then it's ultimately just a volunteer position where the undergraduate may take on the position for intrinsic value or to gain experience.

Ultimately, a lot of professors and researchers may agree that it makes sense to compensate undergrads for hourly wage if possible (especially if they're putting in significant amount of work every week!), but a lot of times, it's really just the fact that the labs do not have the adequate funds to do so.