Pay raise paradise

When it comes to that everincreasing income gap between rich and poor, New York City is pushing back.

According to a Fiscal Policy Institute report to be released on Monday, average hourly privatesector wages in the first two months of this year rose by 4.4 percent in the Big Apple — to $ 34.06 — the strongest increase since the recession and more than twice the national average.

What’s more, the Federal Reserve, in its most recent survey of economic conditions, called pay increases in the New York metro area “widespread,” the only part of the nation to earn that distinction, according to a report in Crain’s New York Business.