BBC pays ‘posh’ women more, says presenter
THE BBC focuses too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on class, Steph Mcgovern has said as she claimed that “posh women are paid a lot more” than her.
While the BBC is vocal about “ethnic diversity” and has addressed some of the issues highlighted in the gender pay row last month, she claimed it has not done enough to tackle the class divide in presenters’ pay.
Arguing for a salary cap of £150,000 for presenters, Ms Mcgovern is reported in The Sunday Times as saying that state-educated presenters such as her have had to “argue” their way to equal pay.
The Breakfast presenter has what she describes as a “Smoggy” accent, having grown up in Middlesbrough, where she attended the statefunded Macmillan City Technology College.
Although Ms Mcgovern was recently given a “significant pay rise”, following new contracts issued in the wake of the gender pay row, she said she is “just now” over the six-figure benchmark.
“It’s not as simple as a gender issue, it’s partly down to class,” she said. “There are a lot of women who do a similar job, who are paid a hell of a lot more, who are a lot posher. We concentrate too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on class.”
One manager at the corporation told her she was “too common” to be a BBC presenter, Ms Mcgovern alleged.
“It’s dead important to represent loads of different cultures,” she said.
“But what the BBC doesn’t do enough of is thinking about getting people from more working-class backgrounds. It’s just posh.”
Many of the BBC’S top female presenters attended private schools and Oxbridge universities.
Last year, a BBC report found that 61 per cent of employees had parents who were or had been in higher managerial positions and professional occupations.
A spokesman said: “More than 80 per cent of the workforce was educated in state schools. The BBC is more diverse than it has ever been.”