BBC offered me £12k less than a man for same job
THE BBC is at the centre of a new gender pay storm after a female editor turned down a promotion on learning she would be paid £12,000 less than her male counterpart.
Karen Martin was announced as one of the corporation’s two new BBC radio newsroom deputy editors in February.
But the former World Service employee revealed she rejected the job when bosses asked her to do it for ‘a lot less’ money than her colleague Roger Sawyer. The BBC is already facing an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation into claims that in the past it consistently paid men more than women for doing the same job.
Miss Martin told colleagues in an email: ‘Despite being awarded the same job, on the same day, during the same recruitment process, BBC News asked me to accept a considerably lower salary.’
She was ‘assured’ she and Mr Sawyer would have the same ‘roles and responsibilities’, adding: ‘It’s just that I’m worth £12,000 less.’
BBC News bosses eventually raised their offer by £5,000 for the role, which pays between £60,000 and £100,000. ‘It has never been about the actual salary. It has been about equal pay,’ Miss Martin said. Her daughters, aged 13 and seven, helped her make the decision.
‘They said, “You always tell us to stand up for what is right. If it means less pocket money or not going on holiday, we don’t mind. What matters to us is that when we grow up we want to be paid the same as a man for the same job”.’
Women and equalities minister Penny Mordaunt said last night: ‘Not only is it grossly unacceptable, it has been unlawful to pay a woman less than a man for the same work for more than 40 years.’ A BBC colleague of Miss Martin said: ‘Despite the BBC’s claims to the contrary, there is one rule for the men and one for the women. This is a spectacular own goal.’
Gavin Allen, head of BBC News output, insisted the salary offered to Miss Martin was ‘ entirely appropriate’. He said: ‘Roger has worked at or above this level for several years whereas Karen was offered this role as a promotion.’
The pay row comes nearly 18 months after the BBC’s former China editor Carrie Gracie quit when she discovered male counterparts were being paid tens of thousands of pounds more than her. She received a £361,000 payout last year.