A 21-year-old socialist and unpaid former NYC Council intern who claimed she was axed after demanding she and her friends receives a commission $32 an hour with full well being advantages — and plans to sue the Council — was born into wealth.
Mina Farahmand — who willingly interned without cost final yr to assist get fellow silver-spoon socialist Zohran Mamdani elected mayor – is the daughter of a outstanding surgeon and grew up in a palatial six-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom residence on 30 acres in Colville, Wash.
Her father, Mehrdad Farahmand, is a general-surgery specialist at Windfall, the most important well being care supplier in Washington State. Though his wage just isn’t public, a present job posting for a normal surgeon at Windfall presents $457,269 to $555,423 in pay per yr.
The elder Farahmand additionally owns a vacant five-and-a-half-acre lot about 10 miles away in close by Kettle Falls, Wash., bringing his whole property portfolio to almost $1 million.
Mina Farahmand made nationwide headlines final month after being fired from an unpaid submit as a legislative intern for Councilman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan).
The current New York College graduate and card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America claimed she was terminated as retaliation for spearheading a petition marketing campaign demanding Council Speaker Julie Menin arrange a fund to pay all Council interns “a residing wage” of $32 hourly — almost double NYC’s current minimal wage of $17 an hour – plus well being advantages.
Critics blasted the cash transfer by the Gen Zer dripping with generational wealth.
“That is simply one other nepo-baby agitator who signed up for an unpaid internship, then demanded to be paid after the very fact,” mentioned former Councilman Robert Holden, a average Democrat, upon studying of Farahmand’s prosperous upbringing.
“We don’t want activists trying to create controversy. We want individuals who perceive that public service begins with honoring the dedication you made.”
Farahmand’s internship began Might 19 and was purported to run via July.
Epstein insisted to Metropolis & State final week that his former intern was not canned over her organizing efforts and that the choice was as an alternative “efficiency associated.”
Farahmand on Tuesday vowed that she and different interns who signed the petition would sue the Council after it accredited a brand new metropolis finances that didn’t embrace funds to satisfy their pay calls for.
“NYC Council’s finances . . . confirms they consider Council interns need to be unpaid,” Farahmand mentioned on X. “We’ve already informed them how we’ve gone hungry. Now we’re suing them for wages.”
As of Friday, the Council had not been served with a lawsuit.
Though some Council interns are paid, others work strictly for faculty credit score.
Menin, who declined to remark, has beforehand mentioned she’s all the time paid her interns and that figuring out intern pay is as much as every Council member.
Farahmand mentioned, “We’re suing the Metropolis of New York for wages as a result of all interns need to be paid, and nearly all New York Metropolis Council unpaid internships, together with mine, are unlawful beneath the first beneficiary check within the Honest Labor Requirements Act.”
