Jamie Oliver, whose net worth is $300M, furloughs 20 staff and uses taxpayers' money to pay wages
Jamie Oliver has reportedly put around 20 of his staff on furlough despite his personal wealth estimated to be around $300 million (£240million ).
The celebrity chef is the latest to depend on the government fund to pay his staff even while he is a multi-millionaire. The Jamie Oliver Group announced that around 20 of its 120 employees had to be placed on furlough as they are not able to work given the coronavirus lockdown.
This is also inclusive of the chefs who run classes at Oliver's cooking school located in London. As per the government's furlough fund scheme, employees are up to 80% of their salary - a limit of $3117 ( £2,500 ) a month or $37,410 (£30,000) a year, the Sun reports.
The group also revealed that they will top-up the salaries of the staff who make more $37,410 a year to make sure that the employee is receiving at least 80% of their total salary while being on furlough.
Other staff are being paid their full salaries as usual given they're able to work from home. The group shared that they do not currently employ any restaurant in the UK. Oliver has three restaurants that are operating in his name — Jamie's Italian restaurant and two Jamie's Delis, all of which are found at Gatwick Airport.
The restaurants were forced into administration despite Oliver putting around $22 million of his personal money into them. The only three restaurants under Oliver's name are located in Gatwick Airport which are staffed by food travel specialist SSP.
However, Oliver's net worth is still a whopping $300 million despite the collapse. In January 2019 he bought a $7 million 16th Century mansion in Essex for his wife and five children. They also own a mansion in Hampstead, north London, worth $11 million.
Recently, the 46-year-old former 'Spice Girls' star Victoria Beckham was called out and heavily criticized for furloughing 30 employees from her fashion business which is making a loss. Her decision to furlough her staff did not sit well with MPs and other public figures like Piers Morgan.
Victoria's family's net worth is an estimated $444 million (£335million). Morgan took to Twitter to share, "Sorry, but this makes me puke. If you care this much about the NHS, @victoriabeckham - then why are you taking taxpayer money the NHS desperately needs - and you DON'T need - to furlough your staff & prop up your failing business."
A spokeswoman for Victoria, on April 18, said, "We are working hard to ensure our much-valued VB team is protected by keeping our business healthy. Having carefully assessed all our options, we made the decision to furlough a proportion of staff on an enhanced package."
Victoria is reportedly feeling bad about being criticized and believes that the backlash she is facing is unfair. Celebrities like Ed Sheeran on the other hand, have received a lot of praise for decisions not to furlough any of their staff.
The 'Shape of You' singer revealed that he will not furlough any of his bar staff. He maintained that there will be no attempts to get the government to help him pay the ten staff who work at his restaurant and bar in Notting Hill, in West London.
