[BREAKING] NYC Council unpaid intern claims she was axed after demanding $32 an hour

An unpaid City Council intern claimed she was fired after demanding that she and her co-workers be paid $32 an hour, nearly double the Big Apple's current minimum wage.

Mina Farahmand, a legislative intern in Manhattan Councilman Harvey Epstein's office, said she was fired Wednesday after she sent Council President Julie Menin a petition signed by 32 of her peers seeking “a living wage,” City & State reported.

“I was fired from @NYCCouncil yesterday for organizing as an unpaid intern after I sent a petition to the president on Tuesday to pay all interns,” Farahmand said in an X post on Thursday.

The petition called for “the creation of a dedicated fund to ensure that all unpaid interns working in council members' offices can receive a living wage of $32 an hour,” City & State reported in its Heard About Town newsletter.

The city's minimum hourly wage is about half that, at $17, although leftist council members proposed earlier this year raising it to $30 an hour.

Farahmand, a New York University graduate, according to her LinkedIn, said she had also confronted Menin at a Youth Civic Summit on Monday to ask him to support salaries, the outlet reported.

A senior staff member in Epstein's office informed her late this week that her "volunteer" position had ended, even though she was supposed to work in the office until July, she claimed.

The union representing municipal workers said in a statement that it wanted a “fair and thorough review of the situation.” “We are concerned by reports that New York City Council intern Mina Farahmand was fired from Councilman Harvey Epstein's office after publicly advocating for increased funding and better conditions for interns,” the executive board of the Legislative Employees Association said.

"Everyone should be able to speak out and defend themselves without fear of retaliation." Menin's office said in a statement to the Post on Friday that it was "already reviewing policies for internships within Council members' offices, and those conversations are ongoing." Decisions about hiring and firing interns are made at the discretion of each board member, a source said.

Farahmand shared a screenshot of the City & State topic on A senior official in Epstein's office told The Post that Farahmand was not fired because of the letter, but declined to provide further details.

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