‘RHOBH’ Alum Lisa Vanderpump Fights Back and Clarifies Stance On WeHo Minimum Wage Raise
Lisa Vanderpump is the star of Vanderpump Rules and is best known for holding a diamond on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The reality TV personality is in the middle of a storm of criticism after opposing raising the minimum wage in West Hollywood — the city where her restaurants live. SUR, TomTom, and PUMP are all heavily featured on the Bravo reality series’ she stars in and recently fought against an ordinance that would raise the minimum wage to $17.64 an hour. Vanderpump is clearing things up and making sure fans understand her stance.
Why is Lisa Vanderpump lobbying against raising the minimum wage?
RHOBH fans remember that Vanderpump loved to control the narrative on the show and was famously called a “sniper from the side.” The restauranteur completely lost control of the narrative when KABC reported that Vanderpump was one who lobbied against the minimum wage hike in West Hollywood.
“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,” Vanderpump said during the virtual meeting.
Even after pushback from business owners, the WeHo city council approved the ordinance and would take effect Jan. 1 for hotel workers and July 1 for all other workers.”
Lisa Vanderpump faces backlash
The following day, Vanderpump issued a rare Twitter statement to clear some misconceptions fans had about what she was pushing back on. Vanderpump said she asked for the vote to be delayed “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.
Vanderpump was asking the city of WeHo “to consider restructuring the minimum wage pay scale so that certain categories of tipped employees are not considered in the same class as non-tipped hourly employees.”
Lisa Vanderpump pushes back and clears up her stance
As the media reported on Vanderpump’s lobbying against the minimum wage raise, she continued to push back on the backlash she was receiving. Furthermore, the Vanderpump Dogs returned to Twitter to clarify her stance for everyone still confused.
“Once and for all, I do not oppose raising minim wage, that’s not what I said, tipped employees do not work for minimum wage, A tier [sic] structure would work for all, I do believe WEHO lawyers are looking into that,” she tweeted.
In another tweet, she said, “So many people who work for me started at the bottom, now are managers, asst managers, same as my kids worked up. We worked hard to make sure business survived. We are working people who started with nothing. Many won’t, 110,000 close due to pandemic. No fault of their own.”
Vanderpump also took a jab at the press adding, “It’s strange as it was a great point, to report something different is ridiculous… but I guess stupidity isn’t the worst crime.”
Fans of Vanderpump can catch the reality star on Vanderpump Rules every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
