STV pays women 17% less... and male stars treat it as a big joke!

SCOTTISH Television yesterday admitted female employees are paid an average of nearly 20 per cent less than their male colleagues.

The broadcaster became embroiled in the pay gap row that has engulfed the BBC as a result of regulations forcing companies to disclose wage data.

Soon after the announcement, STV newsreader John MacKay risked a backlash by joking on Twitter: ‘This salon quality hair doesn’t come cheap.’

STV Group announced its ‘gender pay profile’ in line with the UK Government’s gender pay reporting regulations, ahead of the private sector submission deadline of April 4.

Organisations with 250 or more workers are obliged to publish data on the gap in pay between male and female employees.

The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between theaverage hourly earnings of men and women.

STV said it had a gender pay gap of 17.3 per cent for fixed hourly pay, rising to 34 per cent for bonus pay. But it said a higher proportion of women had received bonuses – 17 per cent for women versus 15 per cent for men.

The TV company said it ‘attributes its gender pay profile to the fact that a higher proportion of men are employed in senior management and leadership roles’.

In the top quartile of earners, 70 per cent are men, while throughout the rest of the organisation the gender split is 49 per cent men and 51 per cent women.

STV said: ‘In support of the target to achieve gender balance in the top 25 per cent of roles by earnings over the next five years, the company will continue to progress a programme of measures to improve diversity.’

It added: ‘This includes widening the pool in recruitment activities; focusing on opportunities for accelerated career development; extending family friendly policies and further training across the organisation to raise awareness of unconscious bias.’

Simon Pitts, chief executive officer, said: ‘We are committed to ensuring that STV is a place where men and women have an equal opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.

‘Our mean gender pay gap of 22.8 per cent shows we are not where we need to be, particularly at the top of our organisation where, in common with many other organisations, there aren’t enough senior women.

‘To address this we are setting the target of achieving gender balance amongst our top 25 per cent of earners within five years.

‘We will deliver this by focusing on how we recruit, on training and on accelerated career development.’

BBC Scotland journalist Douglas Fraser posted on Twitter: ‘My wholly uninformed hunch: it’s John MacKay with his legendary wedge and studio clothing allowance that have skewed the figures.’ He asked STV’s Rona Dougall, Scotland Tonight presenter, if she was ‘still smiling’. Mr MacKay responded: ‘And this salon quality hair doesn’t come cheap…’

BBC Scotland declined to comment and STV said: ‘John doesn’t use Twitter updates to address or comment on serious news issues’.

STV refused to disclose Mr MacKay’s salary.

Last month, women working at ITN attacked ‘staggering inequality’ at the company as it revealed a 19.6 per cent gender pay gap. Chief executive John Hardie was heckled by staff of both sexes. Workers asked Mr Hardie, who took home £1.2million in 2016, if he would hand back his bonus.

A report by ITN found 44 per cent of its employees were women, but 17 of the 20 top earners were male.

‘Reach their full potential’