FYI: The Council voted 46-0 yesterday to raise the minimum wage for about 50,000 employees of city contractors to $10.00/hr by 2006. The bill sets an hourly rate of $8.10 this year and boosts it 50 cents a year until ‘06. “Living-wage” advocates say the bill covers more workers than any such law in the country, but they still groused that Speaker Gifford Miller watered the measure down by exempting some building services contracts. Miller hoped to appease Mayor Bloomberg’s cost concerns. But the mayor’s silence suggests it’s still up for the same fate as a predatory lending measure he vetoed late last month. [11/8/02]