Ex-Employee Of The Kardashian App Makes Eye-Opening Claim About Her Pay

At this point, it seems safe to say that Kim Kardashian would probably prefer it if everyone would just forget about that video interview with Variety in which she said her best business advice for women was to, "Get your f***ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days." Unfortunately for her, it doesn't look like her now infamous quote is going away any time soon. In particular, people who say they worked for the reality star at one point or another don't seem ready to let go of her comments. 

In the viral hullabaloo that followed the short clip, several former Kardashian employees took to social media to say that, actually, they worked extremely hard for the reality star family and their businesses, but didn't receive a whole lot in return. In a viral response tweet of her own, Jessica DeFino claimed that when she worked for the Kardashian apps — owned by Whalerock Industries, a company commissioned by the family to create the apps — in 2015, she could barely afford groceries or gas for her car. Now, DeFino is back with more eye-raising details.

In an op-ed for Vice, Jessica DeFino expanded on her viral tweet, which read, "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."

In her blistering essay, DeFino said she was taking home just over $600 a week after taxes when she was working for the Kardashian Jenner apps which, in the famously expensive Los Angeles, was barely enough to cover the basics. DeFino said it wasn't just the low pay. She, and other former editors quoted in the essay, said that they were working round the clock for the apps, barred from "hustling" for freelance or side jobs to pay the bills, and were even called out for looking for another job. "I thought of the extra labor I put into stretching my salary. I thought of crying in my car because I wanted to get my f***ing ass up, I wanted to be in that room, I wanted to climb the corporate ladder, whatever," DeFino wrote. "I wanted to work. I just couldn't afford to get there."

Kim Kardashian said that her original comment was taken out of context, per Deadline, but it doesn't seem like DeFino is buying that.