{"id":274,"date":"2026-06-19T22:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=274"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:43:55","slug":"nyc-council-intern-fired-after-launching-campaign-to-pay-interns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=274","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council intern fired after launching campaign to pay interns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A group of unpaid interns in the New York City Council launched a campaign this week to pressure the council to pay all of its interns \u2013 and one intern spearheading the campaign was abruptly fired shortly after.<\/p>\n

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Mina Farahmand, a recent graduate of New York University, began working as an unpaid intern for New York City Council Member Harvey Epstein, the chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. Her internship started on May 19 and was supposed to last through the end of July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, Farahmand and 31 other interns sent a petition to Speaker Julie Menin calling for the creation of a dedicated intern fund as part of this year\u2019s city budget, to ensure that all interns receive a living wage of $32 per hour and benefits like health insurance.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Farahamand and other interns attended the Youth Civic Summit, where Menin was a featured speaker. During the Q&A section, Farahmand made a passionate case for the City Council paying interns. As Menin left the event, Farahmand stopped her to personally make the case for a dedicated intern fund. She and other interns also posted about the petition on a dedicated @nyccouncilinterns Instagram account and left comments under Menin\u2019s posts asking her to support paying interns. Farahmand said Menin seemed open to the idea but noncommittal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Speaker\u2019s office was already reviewing policies for internships within Council Member offices and those conversations are ongoing,\u201d a spokesperson for Menin told City & State.<\/p>\n

Council internships are currently a hodgepodge of formal internship programs (funded through outside grants or the city\u2019s Summer Youth Employment Program), paid fellowships, and what are effectively volunteer opportunities that pay in college credit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City Council\u2019s central staff has a formal internship program that pays $32 per hour. But interns also work for individual council members\u2019 offices and for legislative caucuses like the Progressive Caucus, and it\u2019s up to those offices whether and how much they want to pay interns. Some members only employ one or two interns and pay them out of their office\u2019s staff budget, treating them like actual part-time employees. Others employ more than 20 unpaid interns, happy to take advantage of the free labor. The upshot is that some interns get paid while others receive work for free, despite doing essentially the same work.<\/p>\n

Read more These elected officials were pinching themselves at the Knicks parade<\/a><\/p>\n

Farahamand believes that is unfair and disadvantages working-class youth interested in public service. \u201cThey have been unable to eat lunch while at the district office, because they’re not getting paid. They’ve gone into debt to do public transportation to the district office,\u201d she said. \u201cNew York City is the biggest employer in our city \u2013 they\u2019re refusing to pay predominantly working-class youth who are going hungry, who are going into debt, whose bank accounts are hitting zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, according to Farahmand, a top staffer for Epstein\u2019s office asked to speak with her privately and informed her this would be her last day as a \u201cvolunteer\u201d in the office. Farahmand sees this as a clear-cut example of retaliation and said other interns have been less willing to speak out publicly in support of the petition following her termination.<\/p>\n

Epstein told City & State he didn\u2019t hear about Farahmand\u2019s termination until after it happened, but he\u2019s trying to get more information about what happened from his staff. A spokesperson for Menin said no one from the speaker\u2019s office spoke to Epstein about Farahmand or had any prior knowledge of her termination.<\/p>\n

The Association of Legislative Employees,a union representing City Council staffers, expressed concern about Farahmand\u2019s termination, even though it doesn\u2019t formally represent interns.<\/p>\n

\u201cALE stands in solidarity with all workers, regardless of whether they are interns or full-time staff,\u201d the ALE executive board said in a statement. \u201cOrganizing for dignity, fairness, and respect will always be our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farahmand plans to continue organizing, despite being fired. \u201cUnion-busting doesn\u2019t make organizing go away,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep fighting for our rights and to be seen as staffers of the City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The bitter NY-21 primary highlights a fractured GOP<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mina Farahmand was working for Manhattan Council Member Harvey Epstein \u2013 until she wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,20,71],"tags":[72,21,73],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-julie-menin","category-new-york-city","category-new-york-city-council","tag-julie-menin","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-council"],"yoast_head":"\nNYC Council intern fired after launching campaign to pay interns - Business Relocation Digest<\/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:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=274\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYC Council intern fired after launching campaign to pay interns - 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