BBC’s star women use Equal Pay Day to call for hike in their wages
WOMEN presenters on the BBC marked ‘Equal Pay Day’ yesterday by putting pressure on the corporation to close its gender wages gap.
The Today programme’s Sarah Montague, Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley and news presenter Mishal Husain were among those who posted messages and images of themselves on social media wearing T-shirts or holding up posters with equal signs.
Campaigners claim women in effect ‘work for free’ from November 10 to the end of the year because of the difference in wages with men.
BBC figures released in July showed a split between men and women on Radio 4’s Today show, with John Humphrys paid between £600,000 and £649,000, while Miss Montague earns less than £150,000.
One of the strongest protests yesterday came from BBC correspondent Razia Iqbal, who tweeted a photo of herself in an equal-sign T-shirt standing next to the George Orwell statue outside the corporation’s HQ, and wrote: ‘If inequality exists for BBC women you can be sure it does everywhere. Fight inequality.’
Equal pay campaigners condemned easyJet yesterday after it revealed its new male chief executive Johan Lundgren, 51, will get a basic salary of £740,000, compared with the £704,000 paid to his more experienced female predecessor Dame Carolyn McCall, 56.