The alleged former employee issued the statement after reality TV star Kim Kardashian’s controversial advice urging women in business to work harder went viral on social media.
On Wednesday, Variety released an excerpt from an interview with the Kardashian-Jenner women discussing their lucrative business empires. In the video, the billionaire businesswoman shared “her best advice for women in business.”
“Get your ass up and get to work,” Kim Kardashian told Variety. “It seems like no one wants to work these days.”
“I have the best advice for business women,” says Kim Kardashian. “Get your fucking ass up and get to work. It seems like no one wants to work these days.” https://t.co/HuddEEXmoM pic.twitter.com/KJCIlaVX3S
— Variety (@Variety) March 9, 2022
After the controversial comments went viral, a former Kardashian employee opened up about her experience working on her app in 2015.
Newsweek, Complex and British newspaper Metro reported that Jessica DeFino, a freelance reporter for the New York Times and Slate, claimed she could barely afford groceries while working on the app and was reprimanded for working part-time jobs to make ends meet.
I was a Kardashian app editor in 2015 in LA, worked days, nights and weekends, could only afford groceries from the store for only 99 cents, repeatedly yelled “sick” because I couldn’t fill up my car to get to the office and got reprimanded for freelancing on the side ❤️ https://t.co/mzvnTomjS3
— Jessica DeFino (@jessicadefino_) March 9, 2022
This isn’t the first time Kardashian has faced reports of unfair employee pay.
According to Jezebel and Vanity Fair, a lawsuit was filed against the Kardashians last year alleging that the founder of SKIMS denied more than $25,000 worth of wages to seven former employees.