RTÉ to reveal pay rates of its high-profile stars
Average salary at RTÉ is €57,564
RTÉ has bowed to public pressure to publish the salaries of its top stars within a month and has also promised to review ‘gender equality’ across the organisation.
The national broadcaster confirmed it will bring forward its announcement of what the highest-paid presenters earn, following reports of major pay disparities at Montrose.
The pay scale controversy hit new heights when it emerged at the weekend that Six One newscaster Bryan Dobson makes up to €80,000 more than his co-anchor Sharon Ní Bheoláin.
A number of other prominent female staff have also called for more transparency from the State broadcaster.
Radio host Colm Hayes, who left RTÉ last year and was listed among RTÉ’s top ten presenters in 2014, taking home a substantial €170,000, called the gap ‘terrible’.
But Newstalk’s Pat Kenny, who was RTÉ’s best paid host in 2008 – earning €950,967 – said the issue of determining wage packets is not a ‘simple’ matter.
The RTÉ controversy followed the BBC publishing the wages of more than 90 of its stars last week, revealing major pay gaps between male and female stars.
Until now, the most recent salary figures available for RTÉ’s most high-profile presenters dated from 2014. They showed The Late Late Show’s Ryan Tubridy was the best paid star on €495,000, followed by Joe Duffy on €416,893.
Marian Finucane and Miriam O’Callaghan were the only women to make the top ten list – receiving €295,000 and €280,445 respectively. Most of these high-profile stars tend to be on contracts which are renewed every few years.
The broadcaster yesterday provided an anonymous breakdown of how much it pays its 2,000 staff, which showed 77 staff were paid between €100,000 and €150,000 in 2015, while 24 staff were paid between €150,000 and €250,000. Pay to staff is capped at €250,000. RTÉ said the average salary at the Donnybrook-based station is €57,564. In a statement, it said: ‘RTÉ confirms it will bring forward the publication of fees paid to its top ten most highly paid presenters, and expects to release details shortly. RTÉ can also confirm that a review of role and gender equality across the organisation will take place, and will announce more details of that review soon, while affirming that RTÉ complies with all obligations under legislation.
‘As an equal opportunities employer with a close-to 50/50 gender split across the organisation, RTÉ takes its obligations very seriously.’ Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, in her capacity as chair of the Dublin broadcasting branch of the National Union of Journalists, RTÉ’s education correspondent Emma O’Kelly welcomed the announcement.
She said: ‘As a first step, we would like RTÉ to publish data on pay and gender, remuneration levels according to gender and also work grades according to gender, across the board in the interest of transparency.’
Newstalk’s Pat Kenny said of the pay issue: ‘Sometimes looking at it in a black and white way, or a simplistic way, doesn’t tell the whole story. Some people are on lower pay because they choose to remain on staff. Others are totally freelance, like I was for 40 years, and every time your contract comes to the end you’ve got to negotiate and it’s generally hard fought. The principle of equal pay for equal work is absolutely something I would support.’
Speaking about the pay gap, Colm Hayes told the Mail: ‘I think it’s terrible. There shouldn’t be any gap at all. As a programme director now in Radio Nova, I certainly would never, ever consider there’s a difference between a male and female broadcaster.’
Hayes insisted RTÉ, which last week confirmed a deficit of €19.7million in 2016, should address the issue of high salaries across the board. ‘What’s interesting now is that the DG [Director General] is a woman, Dee Forbes, and surely she’s not going to sit over an empire that treats women differently than men? That would be quite bizarre. There is a reality too that if they’re in such incredible financial difficulty, how do they still justify paying huge money?’