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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/19/the-road-to-gender-parity-in-bbc-pay-paved-with-bad-intentions
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| The road to gender parity in BBC pay, paved with bad intentions | The road to gender parity in BBC pay, paved with bad intentions |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Anyone wanting to understand just how embarrassing the revelations on pay are for the BBC should refer to Wednesday morning’s Today programme, broadcast a few hours before the announcement that two-thirds of its highest paid on-air stars are men. | Anyone wanting to understand just how embarrassing the revelations on pay are for the BBC should refer to Wednesday morning’s Today programme, broadcast a few hours before the announcement that two-thirds of its highest paid on-air stars are men. |
| BBC Radio 4’s agenda-setting show offered a perfect vignette when the director general, Tony Hall, tried to explain to Mishal Husain, the show’s first minority ethnic female presenter, that salaries were complicated. | BBC Radio 4’s agenda-setting show offered a perfect vignette when the director general, Tony Hall, tried to explain to Mishal Husain, the show’s first minority ethnic female presenter, that salaries were complicated. |
| “It’s complicated. One person could be sitting next to someone doing the same job who earns more,” Hall squirmed to Husain, who is paid £50,000 to £100,000 less than Nick Robinson, who happened to be sitting alongside her in the studio on a salary, we now know, of £250,000-£299,000. “They could be doing other things,” he continued. “Or they may not be,” shot back Husain. | “It’s complicated. One person could be sitting next to someone doing the same job who earns more,” Hall squirmed to Husain, who is paid £50,000 to £100,000 less than Nick Robinson, who happened to be sitting alongside her in the studio on a salary, we now know, of £250,000-£299,000. “They could be doing other things,” he continued. “Or they may not be,” shot back Husain. |
| 1. Chris Evans £2.2m - £2.25m | 1. Chris Evans £2.2m - £2.25m |
| 2. Gary Lineker £1.75m - £1.8m | 2. Gary Lineker £1.75m - £1.8m |
| 3. Graham Norton £850,0000 - £899,999 | 3. Graham Norton £850,0000 - £899,999 |
| 4. Jeremy Vine £700,000 - £749,999 | 4. Jeremy Vine £700,000 - £749,999 |
| 5. John Humphrys £600,000 - £649,999 | 5. John Humphrys £600,000 - £649,999 |
| 6. Huw Edwards £550,000 - £599,999 | 6. Huw Edwards £550,000 - £599,999 |
| 7. Steve Wright £500,000 - £549,999 | 7. Steve Wright £500,000 - £549,999 |
| = 8. Claudia Winkleman £450,000 - £499,999 | = 8. Claudia Winkleman £450,000 - £499,999 |
| = 8. Matt Baker £450,000 - £499,999 | = 8. Matt Baker £450,000 - £499,999 |
| = 9. Nicky Campbell £400,000 - £449,999 | = 9. Nicky Campbell £400,000 - £449,999 |
| = 9. Andrew Marr £400,000 - £449,999 | = 9. Andrew Marr £400,000 - £449,999 |
| = 9. Stephen Nolan £400,000 - £449,999 | = 9. Stephen Nolan £400,000 - £449,999 |
| = 9. Alan Shearer £400,000 - £449,999 | = 9. Alan Shearer £400,000 - £449,999 |
| =9. Alex Jones £400,000 - £449,000 | =9. Alex Jones £400,000 - £449,000 |
| 10. Fiona Bruce £350,000 - £399,999 | 10. Fiona Bruce £350,000 - £399,999 |
| Awkward. Though possibly not as awkward as the fact that Sarah Montague, the show’s second ever female presenter and second longest serving after John Humphrys does not even appear to have made the list. Humphrys earns more than £600,000, but that includes his salary for presenting Mastermind as well as other TV shows paid for by the licence fee. | Awkward. Though possibly not as awkward as the fact that Sarah Montague, the show’s second ever female presenter and second longest serving after John Humphrys does not even appear to have made the list. Humphrys earns more than £600,000, but that includes his salary for presenting Mastermind as well as other TV shows paid for by the licence fee. |
| Only the BBC would force its own presenters to interview the boss about failings over their own pay of course. Which highlights the one great injustice of the disclosures, forced on the BBC by a Conservative government backed by much of the tabloid press howling for the stories. We will all grow old and die before the Daily Mail’s Sarah Vine interviews Paul Dacre about either his £1.5m last year or indeed whether she earns as much as Katie Hopkins, who works online only. | Only the BBC would force its own presenters to interview the boss about failings over their own pay of course. Which highlights the one great injustice of the disclosures, forced on the BBC by a Conservative government backed by much of the tabloid press howling for the stories. We will all grow old and die before the Daily Mail’s Sarah Vine interviews Paul Dacre about either his £1.5m last year or indeed whether she earns as much as Katie Hopkins, who works online only. |
| It is hard not to feel some sympathy for the BBC, the only major broadcaster that has to name those earning over £150,000 in a hugely competitive market in which its rivals tend to pay more. Rival executives and agents alike will aim to make hay from a poacher’s charter without a level playing field. | It is hard not to feel some sympathy for the BBC, the only major broadcaster that has to name those earning over £150,000 in a hugely competitive market in which its rivals tend to pay more. Rival executives and agents alike will aim to make hay from a poacher’s charter without a level playing field. |
| And yet, if the fact that the top seven highest-paid presenters are all male embarrasses Hall and his senior colleagues it will have been worth it. These highest-paid men all earn above £500,000, unlike Claudia Winkleman, the highest-paid woman. | And yet, if the fact that the top seven highest-paid presenters are all male embarrasses Hall and his senior colleagues it will have been worth it. These highest-paid men all earn above £500,000, unlike Claudia Winkleman, the highest-paid woman. |
| 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. | |
| Now it’s probably as invidious to discuss whether Winkleman works harder on her Saturday night hit show than Gary Lineker does on his as it is to compare either of them with a nurse but, when the gender pay gap shows such a disparity, that’s worth discussing. | Now it’s probably as invidious to discuss whether Winkleman works harder on her Saturday night hit show than Gary Lineker does on his as it is to compare either of them with a nurse but, when the gender pay gap shows such a disparity, that’s worth discussing. |
| The gender pay gap in this country is 18.1%. Even when part-time workers (who, like those in low-paid jobs, are overwhelmingly female) are stripped out, the gap is 9.4%, little changed from the 10.5% gap five years earlier. The speed of change is glacial. One analysis, by consultants Deloitte, estimated that the pay gap would not be eradicated until 2069 – or 99 years after the Equal Pay Act. | The gender pay gap in this country is 18.1%. Even when part-time workers (who, like those in low-paid jobs, are overwhelmingly female) are stripped out, the gap is 9.4%, little changed from the 10.5% gap five years earlier. The speed of change is glacial. One analysis, by consultants Deloitte, estimated that the pay gap would not be eradicated until 2069 – or 99 years after the Equal Pay Act. |
| The gap at the top is even greater, a fact we partly learned when it became mandatory for FTSE100 bosses to reveal their pay. | The gap at the top is even greater, a fact we partly learned when it became mandatory for FTSE100 bosses to reveal their pay. |
| From last April, gender pay reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. | From last April, gender pay reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. |
| Hall, who has appointed more women than men to highly paid jobs in the past three years, says he is committed to closing the gap by 2020. If these disclosures, embarrassing and annoying as they must be proving for individuals, help accelerate that change, they will be a rule change done for the wrong political reasons but with a worthwhile social end. | Hall, who has appointed more women than men to highly paid jobs in the past three years, says he is committed to closing the gap by 2020. If these disclosures, embarrassing and annoying as they must be proving for individuals, help accelerate that change, they will be a rule change done for the wrong political reasons but with a worthwhile social end. |