BBC’s deceived women on pay for years, says presenter Jane
THE BBC has deceived women on salaries for years, top presenter Jane Garvey said yesterday.
Radio 4 Woman’s Hour host Ms Garvey reignited a row that has rocked the BBC by saying management claims that the issue was being addressed were nonsense.
She hit out after BBC director of content Charlotte Moore said it had been trying to deal with a gender pay chasm before salaries of its top-earning talent were revealed for the first time.
Ms Garvey, 53, the first voice on Radio 5 when it launched in 1994, said: “This is a classic bit of BBC management speak. It seems top management’s good intentions haven’t filtered down the organisation or I wouldn’t have heard from women across the BBC who’ve been fobbed off, deceived or told they’ve picked the wrong comparator.
“Whether we’re black, white, brown or pink with green spots, we’re the majority. And we deserve to be valued in the same way as men – for our brains, our experience and our expertise.
“A gender pay gap at the BBC makes it look faintly ridiculous. Why would young women want to work there?”
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Ms Moore said diversity was “something we were doing already and something we were aware of but you can’t say ‘by tomorrow we will have sorted it’.”
She added: “The BBC is right to be at the vanguard of this, but my God we need other broadcasters and institutions to follow suit.”
But Ms Garvey, who organised a letter from some of the BBC’s leading female stars calling on it to “act now” on pay, said it should focus on getting “its house in order”. Last month the BBC was forced to publish salaries of its biggest earners.
That laid bare a massive gender chasm, with men paid significantly more than women for doing the same jobs.
News At Ten’s Huw Edwards, 55, is paid between £550,000 and £599,999 but fellow presenter Fiona Bruce receives a salary of between £350,000 and £399,999.
John Humphrys, 73, gets up to £650,000 for presenting the Today programme on Radio 4. Mishal Husain, 44, gets between £200,000 and £249,999 for the job.