Woman claiming to be ex-Kardashian employee says she was barely paid enough to live

The journalist said she resorted to calling in ‘sick’ because she couldn’t afford gas for her car whilst working for the billionaire

Kim Kardashian at Milan Fashion Week in February 2022 (Getty Images for Prada)

A woman who claims to be a former employee of Kim Kardashian has said she worked “days, nights and weekends” and “could only afford groceries from the 99 Cents Only Store”.

Her claim followed controversial comments made by Kardashian in which the businesswoman said “nobody wants to work these days”.

In an interview with Variety published on 9 March, the 41-year-old reality star shared her advice for women looking to succeed. “I have the best advice for women in business,” she said. “Get your f***ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.”

In response, Jessica DeFino, a beauty critic who writes for the New York Times and Vogue, retweeted the post adding a comment: “I was an editor on the Kardashian apps in 2015 in LA, worked days nights & weekends, could only afford groceries from the 99 Cents Only Store, called out ‘sick’ more than once bc I couldn’t put gas in my car to get to the office, & was reprimanded for freelancing on the side.”

So far, her tweet has attracted almost 500,000 likes and nearly 60,000 retweets.

Kardashian, who is a billionaire, has been widely condemned for her comments, with social media users making their feelings known across multiple platforms.

A significant amount of the criticisms surrounding Kardashian’s comments argue that her wealthy California upbringing and positional privilege invalidate her advice.

“People who were born into wealth sure do have some strong opinions about the work ethic of the poors,” quipped one user, while journalist Soledad O’Brien wrote: “Also: be born rich. Really helps.”

Another simply provided an explanation of what they called “richsplaining”, a play on the term “mansplaining”: “Richsplaining: When a person who hasn't experienced poverty gives you patronising advice on how to get out of poverty”.

One user joked: “I wish I was born rich so I could be self-made”.

In May 2021, seven former employees of Kardashian’s household staff filed a lawsuit against Kardashian.

According to documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Kardashian allegedly failed to pay overtime, cover expenses, and provide legally mandated breaks. A representative for Kardashian denied these claims.

The Independent has reached out to Ms DeFino, Kardashian representatives and Glu, the games developer for the Kardashians App for comment.