{"id":3723,"date":"2026-07-05T10:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2026-07-05T10:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:10:18","slug":"exclusive-fired-nyc-council-unpaid-intern-who-demanded-32-an-hour-livable-wage-is-just-another-silver-spoon-socialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Fired NYC Council unpaid intern who demanded $32-an-hour \u2018livable wage\u2019 is just another silver-spoon socialist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A 21-year-old socialist and unpaid former NYC Council intern who claimed she was axed after demanding she and her peers get paid $32 an hour with full health benefits \u2014 and plans to sue the Council \u2014 was born into wealth.<\/p>\n

Read more Nithya Raman can\u2019t, or won\u2019t, explain socialism<\/a><\/p>\n

Mina Farahmand \u2014 who willingly interned for free last year to help get fellow silver-spoon socialist Zohran Mamdani elected mayor \u2013 is the daughter of a prominent surgeon and grew up in a palatial six-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home on 30 acres in Colville, Wash.<\/p>\n

Her father, Mehrdad Farahmand, is a general-surgery specialist at\u00a0Providence, the largest health care provider in Washington State. Although his salary is not public, a current job posting for a general surgeon at Providence offers $457,269 to $555,423 in pay per year.<\/p>\n

The elder Farahmand also owns a vacant five-and-a-half-acre lot about 10 miles away in nearby Kettle Falls, Wash., bringing his total property portfolio to nearly $1 million.<\/p>\n

Mina Farahmand made national headlines last month after being fired from an unpaid post as a legislative intern for Councilman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan).<\/p>\n

The recent New York University graduate and card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America claimed she was terminated as retaliation for spearheading a petition campaign demanding Council Speaker Julie Menin set up a fund to pay all Council interns \u201ca living wage\u201d of $32 hourly \u2014 nearly double NYC\u2019s existing minimum wage of $17 an hour \u2013 plus health benefits.<\/p>\n

Critics blasted the money move by the Gen Zer dripping with generational wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another nepo-baby agitator who signed up for an unpaid internship, then demanded to be paid after the fact,\u201d said former Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Democrat, upon learning of\u00a0Farahmand\u2019s affluent upbringing.<\/p>\n

Read more Ex-NCAA basketball star Kerr Kriisa arrested by FBI in alleged multimillion-dollar fraud scheme<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need activists looking to create controversy. We need people who understand that public service starts with honoring the commitment you made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farahmand\u2019s internship started May 19 and was supposed to run through July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Epstein insisted to City & State last week that his former intern was not canned over her organizing efforts and that the decision was instead \u201cperformance related.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farahmand\u00a0on Tuesday vowed that she and other interns who signed the petition would sue the Council after it approved a new city budget that didn\u2019t include funds to meet their pay demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Council\u2019s budget . . . confirms they believe Council interns deserve to be unpaid,\u201d Farahmand said on X. \u201cWe\u2019ve already told them how we\u2019ve gone hungry. Now we\u2019re suing them for wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

As of Friday, the Council had not been served with a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Although some Council interns are paid, others work strictly for college credit.<\/p>\n

Menin, who declined to comment, has previously said she\u2019s always paid her interns and that determining intern pay is up to each Council member.<\/p>\n

Farahmand said, \u201cWe are suing the City of New York for wages because all interns deserve to be paid, and virtually all New York City Council unpaid internships, including mine, are illegal under the primary beneficiary test in the Fair Labor Standards Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Putin, Zelensky among world leaders wishing US happy 4th of July on its 250th birthday<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 21-year-old socialist and unpaid former NYC Council intern who claimed she was axed after demanding she get paid $32 an hour with full health benefits comes from a wealthy family, The Post learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive | Fired NYC Council unpaid intern who demanded $32-an-hour \u2018livable wage\u2019 is just another silver-spoon socialist - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3723\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive | Fired NYC Council unpaid intern who demanded $32-an-hour \u2018livable wage\u2019 is just another silver-spoon socialist - 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