March 28, 2024

BBC Closes Gender Pay Gap, but Men Are Still Its 12 Highest-Paid Stars

Several BBC hosts, including Mr. Evans, took pay cuts as the corporation moved to close the gender gap, which was reduced by nearly one-fifth over the past year, the BBC said.

Since last year, the BBC said in a statement, the number of women paid more than £200,000 by the BBC has risen from seven to 14, while the number of men paid more than £500,000 has fallen, from five to three. Eight women joined the list of top-paid celebrities this year.

The median pay gap between men and women doing comparable jobs has fallen to 7.6 percent from 9.3 percent since last year amid a series of initiatives that included introducing simpler job descriptions and repositioning people within pay ranges.

Despite the apparent progress, some critics accused the BBC of slipping since the number of highest male earners has increased.

“Last year, the BBC’s Top 7 earners were ALL men,” Rachel Reeves, a member of Parliament for the Labour Party, wrote on Twitter. “This year, it’s the Top 12. Disgraceful that we seem to be going backwards in the drive for pay equality.”

The remaining gap, according to the BBC’s analysis, resulted from structural issues, with too few women in senior leadership roles and more women than men in the work force’s lowest quartile.

The disclosure of the salary discrepancies caused severe discontent within the BBC, leading to the resignation in January of Carrie Gracie, a senior editor who accused the corporation of having a “secretive and illegal pay culture.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/world/europe/uk-bbc-pay-gender.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Speak Your Mind