Take it while you can, mum tells £2m Evans
Evans said: “Here’s a question – what do you say when confronted with the question, ‘Are you embarrassed about what you earn? Are you ashamed of what you earn?’ How do you react to that question when all you’re doing is coming to work every day like you have been for years to fulfil an agreed contract?
“Frankly, I had no idea what to say. I’ve been asked that question and so have many colleagues over the last 24 hours.
“So here’s what I did. I called my mum. She’s 91, she’s very wise, she was in the war, and I asked her what she thought.
“She said, ‘Tell them that your mum always told you to try to find a job you loved, just like I love nursing, and earn what you can, when you can, while you can – which you did almost straight away from when you were a paper boy earning £1.50 a week for freezing your bits off and falling off your bike every two minutes, right through until what you’re doing now. And tell them – if your bosses don’t think you’re worth it, one day they’ll sort that out soon enough’.”
Evans added: “So there you are, I’m going with what my mum said and that’s it. I don’t think you tune in to this show to hear us talk about these things but I had to say that this morning.
“I thank my mum for advice, as always. I live by her word and I will die by her word.”
The BBC has been forced to publish the pay packages of its biggest names for the first time.
The move has sparked resentment among its stars. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, 56, who receives at least £1.75million, went on holiday after details of his salary emerged.
He later sparked a backlash by posting a picture of himself by a swimming pool in Los Angeles.
Anger boiled over after big disparities in pay were revealed.
Football pundit Alan Shearer, 46, gets at least £400,000 – twice the salary of political editor Laura Kuenssberg, 41.
The dossier laid bare a huge gender split, with men paid significantly more than women for effectively the same jobs.
It has raised the prospect of a wave of legal challenges from women stars who now know what men colleagues earn.
Of the “talent” earning more than £150,000, two-thirds are men, the previously confidential documents reveal.
Warrington-born Evans, who quit as host of Top Gear after ratings plummeted, receives five times as much as the top-earning woman at the BBC, Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman, 45, who earns between £450,000 and £499,999.
Yesterday as the fallout from the pay scandal continued to damage the broadcaster, BBC Breakfast was fronted by Naga Munchetty, 42, who earns up to £199,999 and co-host Charlie Stayt, 55, who was not on the list of top-earning presenters.