Fury of female presenters still paid less than the men
BOSSES at the BBC faced a fresh backlash from high-profile female presenters last night after it emerged that the corporation’s 12 highest earners are men.
They had repeatedly promised to close the gender pay gap after last year’s ‘rich list’ featured almost twice as many men as women. BBC stars including Mishal Husain and Victoria Derbyshire yesterday accused the broadcaster of failing to fix the problem. MPs called it ‘disgraceful’.
Out of the 64 names on this year’s list of top-earning stars, 22 were women. In the top 25, only three were women.
The highest-paid woman received up to £1.39million less than the top-earning man. Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker took home up to £1,759,999 last year while Claudia Winkleman was paid up to £379,999.
But eight more women who were not included last year did make it on to this year’s list of stars who earn more than £150,000. Emily Maitlis was absent from last year’s list of the BBC’s 96 best-paid stars, despite her Newsnight colleagues Evan Davis and Kirsty Wark appearing. She was given a pay rise of tens of thousands of pounds, bringing her salary up to £229,999.
Many top-earning male presenters have agreed to take pay cuts but this has not yet been fully reflected in this year’s pay. Labour MP Stephen Doughty said: ‘It is still a scandal in 2018 that we have a gender pay gap in any industry – let alone the BBC.’
Tory Andrew Bridgen accused the corporation of hypocrisy: ‘The BBC parades itself as a champion of political correctness, diversity and equality. They clearly talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk.’
Female stars – including Miss Husain, Miss Derbyshire and Woman’s Hour’s Jane Garvey – retweeted a comment which claimed many female workers at the BBC ‘are still involved in protracted and gruelling processes to address their pay claims’. It read: ‘This list shows how far the BBC still has to go in valuing women and men equally for their work.’