Lisa Vanderpump Is Against Raising The Minimum Wage

Lisa Vanderpump is known for being many things. Former Super villain on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Owner of multiple restaurants around L.A., most notably, SUR. And for being filthy rich. We all saw the extent of her wealth on RHOBH and there’s no doubt she’s making a nice profit off Vanderpump Rules.

But being rich doesn’t necessary mean you’re generous. The coronavirus pandemic hit restaurants hard, and Lisa’s businesses were no exception. Despite her wealth, Lisa sat silent when her workers were out of jobs. In contrast, Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval used their platforms for good to make sure that their out of work employees were getting income. Which speaks volumes.

Now Page Six is reporting that Lisa might be even cheaper than we thought. During a West Hollywood city council meeting, Lisa appeared on video. All to express that she is against raising the minimum wage for workers. Said Lisa, “I just implore you to really give this a lot of thought, because I do believe if we raise the minimum wage now, it’s going to be counterproductive.”

But despite her efforts, the city council voted to pass the minimum wage, bringing it up to $17.64/hour. All three of Lisa’s restaurants will fall under the new wage increase.

Fans were not impressed and Lisa immediately got blasted on social media. One user tweeted, “God forbid they make some sacrifices to their extremely lavish lifestyles to help keep their employees afloat when they’re worth $90 million.” Another said, “If you can’t afford to pay wages to your employees then you can’t afford your business PERIOD.” And one fan added, “Lisa is worth millions of dollars. How about she take a payout.”

RELATED: Lisa Vanderpump & Ken Todd Sued For Not Paying SUR Employees

Lisa was quick to take to Twitter to try and defend herself. She tweeted out the explanation, “No, let me be clear, what we proposed to the city council was not to disregard the minimum wage – it was to approach it in a twofold manner.” She claimed she simply wanted to delay the vote “until restaurants can get back on their feet during this deadly pandemic — so many have gone out of business, and others are faced with major debts they may not survive.”

She added, “restructuring the minimum wage pay scale so that certain categories of tipped employees … are not considered in the same class as non-tipped hourly.” Lisa also said maintained that tipped employees make about $500 a night and bring in approximately $100K annually. Which is not the case for workers who rely solely on minimum wage. Either way, it’s estimated that the living wage without kids in Los Angeles is $19.35 an hour. Obviously that falls well below the increased wage anyway.

Regardless, the optics are bad. How can someone so rich be against paying their employees more? If Lisa is so worried about her restaurants closing, isn’t it her job as an owner to put more money into them? It’s the least she can do for her employees who are just trying to make a living.