BBC pay gap report findings hard to believe, says Montague
SARAH MONTAGUE, the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter, has attacked the corporation’s gender pay report and said its findings were “very hard to believe”.
She said she was “gobsmacked” by the claim that the pay gap between male and female presenters and journalists was only 6.8 per cent, well below the national average.
She added that highlighting the disparity on her programme was worth some “awkwardness” with colleague John Humphrys, who earned £600,000-£649,999 last year while she made less than £150,000.
When the BBC was forced in July to publish its list of star names paid £150,000 and above, there was surprise that Montague’s name did not feature. She has presented Today for nearly two decades.
Nick Robinson, who joined the programme in 2015, earned £250,000£299,999. Mishal Husain, who also appears on the BBC’S television news bulletins, received £200,000-£249,999.
Yet the PWC report, commissioned by the BBC, delivered the headline finding that there was “no evidence of gender bias in pay decision making”, and said the pay gap was small.
Montague said: “I was gobsmacked when I saw the suggestion from PWC that in the on-air presenting group [the pay gap] was only 6.8 per cent.
“I find that very hard to believe. I’d love to know who was in the group, who they were looking at, who was excluded and how they did the metrics of it.”
Montague told Radio Times: “When I was 20, I wouldn’t have in a million years thought I could be in the situation I was in last July when I discovered what I discovered about my pay.”
It was “a massive shock” to discover she was paid so little in relation to Humphrys, whose salary also includes his work presenting Mastermind. He recently agreed to accept his third pay cut, giving up around £150,000.
PWC said it looked at the pay of 824 people on television and radio news programmes, but the consultancy firm took the BBC at its word when it gave “non-gender related reasons” for men earning more than women.
A BBC spokesman said: “The review by PWC was thorough and followed the methodology to reviewing equal pay that is set out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
“As we said earlier in the week, we’ve had 230 individual cases of pay unfairness and equality raised by women and men since July and are seeking to deal with them as quickly as possible – we’ve already addressed close to half.
“We’ve also set out proposals for a clear and transparent pay framework so people will be able to see the pay range for their job and have information to know where they stand in comparison to others to ensure a fairer, equal BBC.”