BLOATED BLOKES CLUB
Seven best-paid stars are all white men Furious female celebs demand equality Corbyn: We would bring in £400k pay cap
THE BBC is engulfed in a massive row over its gender pay gap.
It emerged its seven top-paid stars are all men – and white. Only two in the top 14 are women. Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey said many female hosts are “hacked off ”. BBC chief Tony Hall vowed that things will change.
THE public, politicians and some of the men earning fortunes at the BBC say bosses must deal with the huge gender pay gap.
All seven of the Corporation’s highest paid stars are male.
The salaries of the top two – Radio 2’s Chris Evans on at least £2.2million; and football presenter Gary Lineker earning up to £1.8million – dwarf that of the best-paid woman, Claudia Winkleman, who is on up to £499,999.
A number of women earn far less than men in similar roles.
Theresa May said it is important the BBC “looks at the whole question of how they pay women and how they pay men for doing the same job”.
She added: “The only reason we know about this, though, is because the Government required the BBC to publish these figures.”
Some of the stars would face huge pay cuts under a Labour government, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman vowed.
The party would slash maximum BBC salaries to no more than 20 times what the lowest-paid staff earn. If a directly-employed cleaner or canteen assistant at the Corporation was on £20,000 a year, the most the stars could get would be £400,000.
The Labour leader’s spokesman said: “We had in our manifesto a very clear position about the necessity of tackling excess pay at the top end. In the public sector we are committed to a direct limit… there’s a ratio.”
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman added that the pay gulf between male and female presenters doing the same jobs is “obviously wrong”.
Labour MP Jess Phillips said: “There is clearly a fundamental problem in how women are valued by the Corporation.
“It’s difficult to see how this wasn’t picked up sooner.”
Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine, who earned more than £700,000 in the past financial year, was confronted on air by an angry listener who said the star is “grossly overpaid”. Harry Jones, from Glamorgan, told Vine: “I enjoy your programme and I enjoy you personally but I’d like to ask you a direct question: are you embarrassed to pick up your pay cheque?”
Vine replied: “I just feel very lucky every day, is the answer to that.” On the gender pay gap, he added: “I really did not know anything about this until this morning.”
Radio and TV host John Humphrys, who was fifth on the list, earning up to £650,000, said he was “not happy” with the revelation that some of his “brilliant” female Today show colleagues, such as Sarah Montague and Mishal Husain, did not make the top 10. He also suggested he would accept half his salary. Humphrys told the BBC: “I have taken a couple of very sizeable pay cuts just recently. Would I chop my salary in half? Maybe I would, I don’t know. The BBC hasn’t suggested it.” Many famous female stars did not make the list of those earning more than £150,000 – among them BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin. It seems she may have been wondering the same on yesterday’s show, as an awkward exchange between her and co-host Dan Walker – earning up to £250,000 – indicated.
Minchin said the list would be published at 11am, then Walker said “Could be a fun day ahead.” Minchin tightened her lip in apparent annoyance, rolled her eyes and turned her shoulder on her co-presenter.
Dan later tweeted the hosts get “exactly the same” for presenting the news show, but he earns more because of his work on Football Focus.
Figures from the Corporation’s annual report show there are 96 on-air stars on more than £150,000 – 62 men and 34 women.
Of the women on the list, only five are non-white: East Enders actors Tameka Empson and Diane Parish, newsreader Moira Stuart, Today
comment on their salaries. But TV host Andrew Marr, on £400,000 a year, released a statement saying: “In the past I have been offered deals by the BBC’s commercial rivals at a higher rate than the corporation would pay.
“I now earn £139,000 a year less than I did two years ago.”
Match of the Day host Lineker’s pay is at least £1,750,000. Gabby Logan, who also presents the show, athletics and a football magazine programme, earns up to £250,000. Lineker said on Twitter: “I blame my agent and the other TV channels that pay more. Now where did I put my tin helmet?’”
He added: “This whole BBC salary exposure business is an absolute outrage... I mean how can Chris Evans be on more than me?” issue. If it becomes clear people doing the same job with the same level of experience [are] being paid at very different levels, people will question why that can be the case.”
The figures show glaring gender pay gaps when it comes to staff doing similar jobs. High profile news anchors Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce are on vastly different pay.
Edwards, whose main role is presenting the 10pm news bulletin, took home between £550,000 and £600,000. Bruce, who hosts the 6pm news as well as Antiques Roadshow, earned up to £400,000.
The top two actors in scripted drama were Casualty stars Derek Thompson and Amanda Mealing.
Many celebs named in the report stayed off social media and did not presenter Mishal Husain, and Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty.
BBC Director General Tony Hall pledged to remedy the problem, saying of the discrepancy: “Is that where we want to be? No.”
He added the Corporation needs to “go further and faster on issues of gender and diversity”.
Asked about Mrs May’s comments on the gender pay gap, BBC’s director of strategy and digital James Purnell said: “We are not paying them in a discriminatory way. We pay them [staff] according to their value to the BBC and their value to the audience.”
Damian Collins, who chairs the Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said he will be raising the issue of gender pay in Parliament. He said: “This could be a really serious