Daily Mail

... but BBC chiefs face sexism storm over paying their male stars more than women

- By Showbusine­ss Correspond­ent

THE BBC faces an embarrassi­ng row over the pay gap between sexes when the salaries of its top stars are published this week.

The broadcaste­r will disclose the pay of about 100 stars who earn more than £150,000 – Theresa May’s salary – on Wednesday.

Sources say the list will expose ‘astounding omissions’, with some top women presenters not paid over the threshold.

A senior source said the revelation­s would force the BBC to act.

‘Nowadays there is parity in terms of how much airtime women are getting, but to my absolute knowledge there is not parity in what they are paid for that airtime,’ the source added.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘There will be some astounding omissions – people who are not paid over that threshold – and there will be some: “Does that woman not sit beside that man? How come she is not in the same pay band as him?”’

The BBC, which will publish the figures in £50,000 bands, is also worried about a public backlash over salaries from licence fee payers, in a year when the annual charge has risen from £145.50 to £147.

Some of the biggest earners are well chron- icled. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is reportedly on more than £1milllion.

Meanwhile, Fiona Bruce, the newsreader and Antiques Roadshow host, is said to be on more than £500,000 a year, and Radio 4 Today programme presenter Nick Robinson is understood to receive between £300,000 and £350,000. Eddie Mair, host of Radio 4’s PM show, reportedly makes as much as £425,000.

Andrew Marr, who hosts the eponymous political chat show, has denied reports he earns up to £580,000 but said last month the publicatio­n of BBC salaries would be ‘uncomforta­ble for all of us’.

Under pressure to be more transparen­t about how it spends its £3.7billion licence fee income, the BBC originally agreed to disclose the salaries of on-air staff earning more than £450,000. It subsequent­ly bowed to more pressure and agreed to go further.

It is understood that of nine people earning £450,000 or more, only one is a woman.

The corporatio­n has spent years trying to keep pay secret, claiming that publishing the salaries of its top talent would force its bill upwards as rivals tried to poach its bigname presenters.

The BBC has also been shifting presenters off its public books, on to the accounts of its commercial production arm BBC Studios so that it can keep them secret.

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