NOT A GOOD LOOK

Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang’s Ex-Employee Claims He Fired Her for Getting Married

Kimberly Watkins claims Yang told her she “wouldn’t want to continue working as hard” after marriage.

A former Manhattan Prep employee claimed Democratic presidential candidate and former Manhattan Prep CEO Andrew Yang fired her for getting married in 2007, HuffPost reports. In an essay published in the Gotham Gazette Thursday, Kimberly Watkins said Yang fired her on her third day back to work following her honeymoon. “Our private discussion, in his office with the door closed, began with Andrew’s remarks that because I was married, I wouldn’t want to continue working as hard as I had been,” Watkins wrote. “That as a wife, I’d be focused on my new life.” Watkins claims she was also given a “monthly payment for no longer working” for two years after her dismissal. “Sounds a lot like Yang’s ‘freedom dividend’ platform doesn’t it?... Rather than governing our way into a sustainable economy, Yang’s plan absolves the government from overseeing companies that could render countless workers obsolete,” Watkins wrote.

In a statement, Yang said he made hiring and firing decisions “singularly based on performance” and called Watkins' claims “inaccurate.” “During my more than a decade as CEO, I have worked with many women, married and otherwise, and value their work and dedication as important to the success of any institution,” he wrote. Manhattan Prep has not publicly commented on the claims.