Best-paid at BBC still men despite drive to end gender pay-gap
WOMEN who led the BBC’s gender pay campaign have made it on to a new list of top earners – but the corporation’s 12 highest-paid stars are all men.
Gary Lineker is the BBC’s best-paid presenter on an annual salary of £1.75m-1.78m (€1.97m-2.01m). His World Cup colleague Alan Shearer earns £410,000-419,999 (€463,000474,000).
Lineker is followed by Chris Evans on £1.66m-1.67m (€1.87m-1.886m).
The gender pay gap is still very much in evidence. Of the 64 presenters on the list who earn £150,000 (€169,000) or more, only 22 are women.
They include women whose omission from the list last year caused a furious backlash, and who fought to be paid fairly.
Emily Maitlis now earns £220,000-229,999 (€248,000260,000) for presenting ‘Newsnight’, and Sarah Montague, formerly of the Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme, earns £160,000-169,999 (€180,000192,000).
There was anger last year when both women were revealed to be paid under £150,000, far less than their male colleagues.
The highest paid woman is Claudia Winkleman, on a published salary of £370,000379,999 (€418,000-429,000.
However, her salary only covers her Radio 2 show and occasional BBC work, and does not include what she earns for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The only other woman in the top 20 highest earners is Vanessa Feltz on £330,000-339,999 (€373,000-384,000).
Fiona Bruce’s ‘Antiques Roadshow’ salary is hidden, taking her published earnings for presenting news bulletins down to £180,000-189,999 (€203,000214,500). If the BBC Studios figure was included, her salary is estimated to be more than £600,000 (€677,500).
New entries include Ian Wright, football commentator and 5 Live host (£170,000179,999; €192,000-203,000).
Chris Evans has seen the largest fall in monetary terms.
His salary band dropped from £2.2m-2.25m (€2.48m-2.58m), although it is unclear to what extent this was due to his sacking as ‘Top Gear’ presenter. However, given Matt LeBlanc doesn’t appear on the list at all, it would suggest Evans has indeed taken a large pay cut.
The midpoint of the salary ranges of Jeremy Vine, Graham Norton and John Humphrys have all fallen by over £200,000 (€226,000) over the last year.