Obama praises kabob house owner’s wage hike in weekly address

WASHINGTON – President Obama is taking his campaign to hike the minimum wage to a tiny kabob house near Grand Central Terminal.

The president is devoting much of his Saturday weekly radio address to owner Yasmin Ibrahim’s decision to hike wages for her workers to $10 an hour.

It’s part of his pitch to get businesses to raise wages on their own, in light of his inability to get the Republican House to act on a bill to raise wages nationwide.

Ibrahim’s 12-seat restaurant, called Desi Shack, is located at the corner of 39th Street and Lexington Avenue, and features lamb kababs, samosas, and other tasty south Asian dishes.

Obama told his nationwide audience in prepared remarks that he got a letter from Ibrahim saying she was inspired by his State of the Union address this year, where he acknowledged Minneapolis pizza proprietor John Soranno, who raised his own workers’ wages to $10 an hour.

“Here’s what she wrote,” Obama said. “ ‘I was moved by John Soranno’s story. It got me thinking about my . . . full-time employees and their ability to survive on $8 an hour in New York City.’ ”

Obama said, “Yasmin isn’t just raising her employees’ wages because it’s the right thing to do. She’s doing it for the same reason John Soranno did. It makes good business sense.”