BBC ‘must reveal what stars are paid per day’

TELEVISION host Clare Balding has called on the BBC to reveal what its stars are paid by the day – to understand how much work personalities such as Gary Lineker actually do for their huge salaries.

The sports and chat show presenter said the current policy of disclosing only headline salaries masked true gender pay inequality, as it did not show how many hours were put in to earn them.

Speaking to pupils at Benenden girls’ school in Kent, she called for ‘complete transparency of what people are paid for the days they work’.

She added: ‘Not just a general number, because nobody knows how many days Gary Lineker does for his enormous salary and, until you know that, you can’t really make a judgment.’

The most recent BBC pay disclosures showed Lineker, 58, was paid up to £1.75million last year. Miss Balding, 48, who presents coverage of Wimbledon, got between £175,000 and £179,999.

The Sunday Times analysed the figures to calculate that Miss Balding’s daily rate was £4,860, or £1,056 per hour, while Lineker’s was £28,689, £14,113 an hour.

Lineker’s agent Jon Holmes said the Match Of The Day presenter’s hourly rate was ‘quite low’ compared with entertainment shows, for which he said some presenters were paid £15,000 for half an hour.

He added: ‘A lot of the time the rates are down to the star factor. You have to think about how many people watch the football and how many watch the athletics from Gateshead.’

Miss Balding’s comments come after the BBC was taken to an employment tribunal by Newswatch presenter Samira Ahmed last week.

Miss Ahmed claims she was paid a sixth of what Jeremy Vine received for hosting the BBC show Points Of View and is seeking nearly £700,000 in back pay saying she and Vine did similar work.