The BBC is facing a backlash from female stars over pay after revealing that only a third of its 96 top earners are women and the top seven are all men.
Q&AWhat were the top 10 BBC salaries for 2017?
Show
1. Chris Evans £2.2m - £2.25m
2. Gary Lineker £1.75m - £1.8m
3. Graham Norton £850,0000 - £899,999
4. Jeremy Vine £700,000 - £749,999
5. John Humphrys £600,000 - £649,999
6. Huw Edwards £550,000 - £599,999
7. Steve Wright £500,000 - £549,999
= 8. Claudia Winkleman £450,000 - £499,999
= 8. Matt Baker £450,000 - £499,999
= 9. Nicky Campbell £400,000 - £449,999
= 9. Andrew Marr £400,000 - £449,999
= 9. Stephen Nolan £400,000 - £449,999
= 9. Alan Shearer £400,000 - £449,999
=9. Alex Jones £400,000 - £449,000
10. Fiona Bruce £350,000 - £399,999
Chris Evans is the BBC’s best-paid star, collecting at least £2.2m in the last financial year according to an unprecedented list of top earners published by the corporation on Wednesday that revealed a significant gender imbalance. The best-paid female star, Claudia Winkleman, was paid just a fifth of what Evans collected, between £450,000 and £500,000.
Alex Jones, presenter of The One Show, is the only other female star to be paid more than £400,000 by the BBC, while 12 men are paid more than that amount. Clare Balding, the sports presenter, received about a tenth of Gary Lineker’s pay, earning £150,999–£199,999 compared with his £1.75m–£1.79m. Graham Norton was paid £850,000–£899,999 according to the list, but this does not include proceeds from The Graham Norton Show, which is made by an independent production company and is thought to take his earnings above £2.5m.
There are some high-profile female absentees from the list of actors, presenters, journalists and panellists who were paid more than £150,000 in the last year. Emily Maitlis, the news presenter, Sarah Montague, the presenter of the Today programme on Radio 4, and Louise Minchin, who presents BBC Breakfast, earn £150,000 a year or less, according to the disclosure. This is despite their co-presenters on BBC shows making the list, including John Humphrys, who presents Today and Mastermind and was paid £600,000–£649,999.
Harriet Harman, the Labour MP, said there was “clearly discrimination” at the BBC and that the corporation needed to change. “It is very important that the lid has been lifted on this pay discrimination in the BBC,” Harman, the longest-serving female MP, told BBC News. “Although everybody will think it is very unfair and outrageous, this is a moment when it can be sorted out.
“The BBC needs to set an example. This is public money and people don’t want their money to be spent unfairly. Public money shouldn’t be spent in a way which is discriminatory. When you look at the structure and the pay, it is clearly discrimination. Now that it is out in the open, it will have to change.”
Theresa May, the prime minister, accused the BBC of paying women less than men for doing the same job. “I think what has happened today is we have seen the way the BBC is paying women less for doing the same job as the men. I want to see women paid equally with men,” she said in an interview with LBC.
Agents for a group of the BBC’s female stars are understood to be preparing to demand that the corporation’s bosses offer their clients a pay rise. Lawyers have also warned that the BBC faces sexual discrimination lawsuits.
Keely Rushmore, senior associate at SA Law, said: “The statistics could well lead to claims of sex discrimination by female stars. The BBC will need to show that the difference in pay is not directly on the grounds of sex, but also that – to the extent that it asserts it relates to other factors such as viewers’ demands and preferences – the differential treatment is justified.”
The BBC fought against the list being published, claiming that it would create a “poacher’s charter” and drive up salaries in the media industry, but it was forced to by the government as part of its new 11-year royal charter.
Asked whether the BBC was expecting legal action over the gender pay gap, Tony Hall, the director general, said: “We will be working carefully and managing our relationship with the talent on which we depend. That’s a job we have got to do. I want to get the very best talent working for the BBC and the best relationships with them.”
Hall insisted the BBC was “more diverse than the broadcasting industry and the civil service”, but admitted there was more to do following the pay disclosure. “I feel reinvigorated in one of the things I really believe, which is getting by 2020 equality on the air between men and women and in pay as well,” he said.
However, Jane Garvey, the BBC radio presenter, hinted on Twitter at the frustration within the corporation. Garvey, who was also not on the list, said: “I’m looking forward to presenting BBC Woman’s Hour today. We’ll be discussing #genderpaygap. As we’ve done since 1946. Going well, isn’t it?” Maitlis and Montague both retweeted Garvey’s comment.
Jeremy Vine, the radio presenter and the BBC’s fourth-best paid star, on £700,000 to £749,999 , admitted the organisation was “really hurting” following the revelations.
Humphrys supported the disclosures, but said he was “not happy” that his female colleagues on the Today programme, Montague and Mishal Husain, who was paid £200,000 to £249,999, were not among the top 10 highest paid. Referring to his female colleagues, Humphrys said: “I’m not happy with that. I don’t think that is right.”
Asked on Radio 4’s Media Show whether he was worth his salary, Humphrys said: “If you compare me with lots of other people – a doctor who saves a child’s life, a nurse who comforts a dying person, or a fireman who rushes into Grenfell Tower – then of course you couldn’t argue that I am not worth twopence halfpenny.
“However, we operate in a marketplace, and I think I provide a fairly useful service. Somebody has to do the job of trying to hold power to account and speak the truth about all that stuff.”
The BBC has published the list of stars in £50,000 bands. It does not include payments to staff from production companies or BBC Worldwide, which generates commercial revenues. This means some high-profile BBC figures are not included, such as the stars of The Great British Bake Off, Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sir David Attenborough.
However, programmes produced by the BBC, including EastEnders, Casualty, and Strictly Come Dancing, are included.
Evans’s work for the BBC in the past year included his Radio 2 breakfast show and Top Gear. He is understood to have received extra payments for presenting Top Gear from BBC Worldwide that are not included in this list. Evans said on Wednesday that it was “on balance right and proper” that the BBC made the disclosure.
Among the actors on the list, Derek Thompson, who plays Charlie Fairhead in Casualty, was the best paid. He received £350,000 to £399,999 in the last year. In entertainment, the judges of Strictly Come Dancing were all paid more than £150,000. Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli were paid £200,000 to £249,999 and Darcey Bussell and Craig Revel Horwood £150,000–£199,999.
Q&AHow does BBC pay compare to its competitors?
Show
The reason the BBC was told to publish the list of top earners was to demonstrate whether it is delivering value for money - in other words, whether it pays in line with the market. Given that no other broadcaster publishes the pay of its stars this is difficult to prove, but Tony Hall, the director general, insists the BBC aims to pay people at a discount to the market while Gary Lineker, one of the top earners, insists he has been offered more lucrative deals to leave. One publicly available pay deal is for Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, who gets £1.5m a year - which would put him second on the BBC’s list behind Chris Evans.
The BBC also revealed that 106 senior managers earned more than £150,000 last year, a list it has published in the past. The corporation now spends £42.2m a year on senior managers, compared with £78.5m in 2009. The best-paid executive in the last year was the director general, Hall, who collected more than £450,000.
The bill for the 96 on-air stars was £28.7m, a reduction from the more than £31m the BBC spent on its leading talent in the previous year. The BBC said that the top earners on its list represented less than 0.25% of the 43,000 talent contracts that it handled last year.
