Summary
Here’s a roundup of the main points after the publication of the BBC’s top salaries.
- Chris Evans was paid at least £2.2m by the BBC last year while Gary Lineker collected more than £1.75m and Graham Norton more than £850,000, according to figures published by the corporation. Evans said it was “right and proper” that the public knows how much he his senior colleagues are paid.
- The list of 96 top earners exposed a series of gender disparities on pay in sports coverage, news, radio and TV. Only a third of the top earners are female and the top seven are all male.
- Lawyers have warned that the BBC is now exposed to sex discrimination claims by its female presenters. Labour’s Harriet Harman urged the BBC to stop using public money to discriminate against women.
-
BBC director general, Tony Hall, says he is committed to closing the gender pay gap at the BBC by 2020. “By 2020 we will have equality between men and women on air, and we will also have the pay gap sorted by then too,” he said.
- Culutre secretary Karen Bradley presented the issue of openness about BBC salaries as one of promoting equality rather than squeezing the resources of the corporation. But opponents of the BBC have been using the salaries to attack the corporation and scrap the licence fee.
-
Theresa May took a dig at the BBC high earners to deflect a question about pay in the public sector. Speaking at prime minister’s questions she said: “as we see today there are some people in public sector who are being very well paid”.
- The union representing low-paid production workers at the BBC is stepping up demands for a minimum salary of 20,000. Gerry Morrissey, leader of Bectu, said: “There should be a lot more focus on giving low-paid staff a decent living wage.”
That’s your lot for today. There is more on our BBC section.
Updated
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson, one of 10 MPs propping up the government after a promise of £1bn for Northern Ireland, has attacked the BBC’s top salaries as “a national disgrace”.
In a series of statements published on his Twitter account he said: “This is just another example of the champagne socialism which permeates many public sector organisations and is yet another reason whey the unfair licence fee ought to be abolished and the BBC made to earn its money rather than it be gifted to it from those who often cannot pay.”
Red faces and fat wallets at the BBC! pic.twitter.com/DIf6EPoBs2
— Sammy Wilson MP (@eastantrimmp) July 19, 2017
Conservative former minister Anna Soubry said it was “a disgrace” that the BBC was required to disclose salaries and she could not defend Tory policy on the issue.
The Broxtowe MP told BBC Radio 5 Live Daily’s Adrian Chiles: “This story is a disgrace, not because of figures but the fact that it’s ever been published.
“I take objection on behalf of these people who have had their names and their salaries exposed in this completely undignified way.
“What this will do is that it will stoke up the politics of envy ... People will say, well, why is a nurse worth less than Gary Lineker or Chris Evans, and that’s a completely meaningless debate.
“So the BBC should be ashamed of themselves, they should never have agreed to this, it shouldn’t have been done.”
Other MPs have been alarmed by gender pay gap exposed in the list. Labour’s Tracy Brabin picks out examples we mentioned earlier.
BBC gender pay gap is shocking. They must move to improve the situation very, very quickly. Some stark examples in the picture! pic.twitter.com/fX9adosLcE
— Tracy Brabin MP (@TracyBrabin) July 19, 2017
The Guardian has published a searchable list of all the 96 BBC stars earning more than £150,000.
The government is presenting the issue of openness about BBC salaries as one of promoting equality rather than squeezing the resources of the corporation.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley told BBC News: “Transparency is really important in uncovering where there are things that are perhaps not as fair and equal as they should be.
“We have the opportunity to see where there’s maybe gender pay gaps, and where there’s issues about BAME presenters perhaps not being paid as much as others.”
She added: “I’m really pleased that Director General Tony Hall has said that he welcomes this because he wants to make sure that they do deal with any misrepresentation of women, of any under payment of anybody and that we get that gender pay gap dealt with.”
Bradley also claimed that publication of salaries would have deflationary impact on the BBC pay bill. She said: “From the anecdotal evidence that we have seen people are asking for their pay to be reduced because they are very conscious of how this looks to the public.
“If you look at the civil service or politicians, transparency has not led to pay inflation, quite the opposite. It is for license fee payers to determine whether they think this is good value for money or not.
Here’s an answer to one of the questions we put to you earlier:
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.
Updated
Jeremy Vine: salaries are for the BBC to justify
Jeremy Vine sounded defensive when he was challenged about his £700,000 plus salary by a former coal miner during a phone-in on Vine’s Radio 2 show.
“I feel very lucky every day is the answer,” Vine said.
The former miner, who gave his name as Harry, said he thought Vine was overpaid.
Vine, the fourth highest earner on the list said: “I don’t even want to answer that, because I feel like it is not the moment for me...”
Harry said Vine should be prepared to answer direct questions as he expected guests on his show to do. Asked if he thought BBC presenters were overpaid, Vine replied “some are”.
Harry then asked: “How can you people justify the amount of money you are earning?
Vine replied: “To some extent Harry this is for the BBC to justify.”
Guardian readers have been in touch to share their thoughts on the gender pay gap.
Janice Aitken said she is not surprised about the gender pay gap at the BBC. “I’m deeply saddened to see it is firmly entrenched in the BBC. If the household names we see on our screens daily are not treated equally then the message is loud and clear - women are less valued, less entertaining and less authoritative than men who are doing the same job.”
A freelance writer from Essex, Jenny Day thinks the report reflects an organisational culture which is out of touch with the modern era. “The idea that a man should automatically be ‘the family breadwinner’ has long since ceased to be relevant. There are now many families in which the woman is the main breadwinner, yet this notion of male superiority in remuneration stubbornly persists.”
Daniel Bevan from Portsmouth thinks the pay gap is “a ridiculous and unjustified throwback to a time when women were seen as unequal”. He said, “It’s very simple. If you can do the job well, it’s irrelevant whether you’re male or female.”
Updated
Chris Evans: publishing salaries 'right and proper'
Chris Evans was mobbed by reporters asking to justify his £2.2m plus salary as he left the BBC after presenting his radio breakfast show.
He told them: “We are the ultimate public company and therefore I think that it is probably, on balance, right and proper if people know what we get paid.”
Lord Hall defended Evans’s pay uring a briefing on the annual report. He said: “Chris Evans is presenting the most popular show on the most popular radio network in Europe.
“It might not be commercial radio, but we do know that for a number of presenters they have been made offers by commercial radio.
“We also know we’ve lost people, not Chris, but to Amazon and to other big players ... Also the choice for some of our talent is to go and do something completely different because they’re entertainers ... that is the market we’re dealing with. Them saying ‘we’re going to do something completely different’ or ... ‘it’s a market that is not just the UK but global’.”
Another lawyer has warned the BBC is now open to sex discrimination claims over pay (see earlier).
Ruth Gamble, Partner at BDBF said: “If the BBC’s list of salaries shows that a female presenter on a primetime show is being paid less than a male presenter on the same show or a similar one, they have the makings of a good sex discrimination or equal pay claim. To defeat such a claim, the BBC would have to demonstrate that there is an explanation for the difference, which has nothing to do with gender. They will likely try to rely on years’ of experience, audience ratings for particular shows and differences between programme genres but, if the disparities are as striking as many expect them to be, it will not be an easy argument.”
Louise Minchin is one of the women whose absence has been noted from the list of high earners, given that her fellow BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker is on it.
Walker has taken to Twitter to explain the reason for this discrepancy.
BBC exec should really know that we get exactly the same for BBC breakfast. I have another job on Football Focus https://t.co/zcTvaiocqX
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) July 19, 2017
Theresa May has taken a dig at BBC high earners in response to a question about public sector pay.
After Labour MP Ian Murray asked her, in prime minister’s questions, which public sector workers she thinks are overpaid and which ones are underpaid, May responded by saying that she knows many people are struggling but “as we see today there are some people in public sector who are being very well paid”.
Murray was following up on a question by the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who asked May if the chancellor, Philip Hammond, was referring to members of her cabinet, when he said, earlier this week, that some public sector workers were overpaid.
You can catch up on all the action from PMQs on Andrew Sparrow’s politics blog.
BBC presenter Andrew Marr has defended his 400,000-a-year salary, claiming he has turned down higher offers from the broadcaster’s rivals, PA reports.
He revealed his salary had been steadily decreasing and had dropped 139,000 in the past two years.
In a statement, Marr said:
“In the past I have been offered deals by the BBC’s commercial rivals at a higher rate than the corporation would pay.
“Following the publication of the BBC’s annual report, I can confirm that I’m paid £400,475 a year.
“It covers the weekly Sunday morning show, my radio work, documentary commissions, television obituaries, and work on big news events such as elections and both the Scottish and UK referenda coverage.
“It’s less, of course, than the £600,000 I was widely reported to be earning a couple of years ago; or indeed the 3 million a year Daily Telegraph claimed I was paid.
“As the BBC moves to deal with highly paid employees, my salary has been coming down. I now earn £139,000 a year less than I did two years ago.”
Andrew Neil also addressed his inclusion on the list during Wednesday morning’s Daily Politics.
Sitting alongside co-presenter Jo Coburn, who was not included on the list, he said: “The BBC has published details of on-screen talent, which you may be surprised to know includes me - as on-screen talent.”
Discussing a sports segment on the programme, Neil joked: “Is Gary Lineker coming on to do this bit? That means the budget will be gone for the year.”
Neil was included in the £200,000-249,999 bracket, while Match Of The Day presenter Lineker’s salary is more than £1.75m.
Former Sun editor David Yelland says he earned more at the Sun in 2003 than any of the news presenters listed in today’s report.
I earned more than all the news and current affairs BBC staff on that list - other than Presenters- as Editor of The Sun. In 2003.
— David Yelland (@davidyelland) July 19, 2017
Boastful but important context.
BBC could face sex discrimination claims
Lawyers have warned that the BBC could face claims for sex discrimination by female stars.
In an email Karen Jackson, managing director at the firm Didlaw, said: “If you look at Gary Linekar’s pay of £1.9m as compared to Clare Balding’s £199k there is obviously a gender pay discrepancy. Clare Balding would certainly have a case unless the BBC can show there is a substantial and legitimate reason for the discrepancy.”
She added: “A material factor defence is available to employers to show that the pay difference is not because one is a man and the less well paid person is a woman. I have no doubt that the BBC’s legal advisers are already scrambling to gather evidence as to why the work is not equal. It’s obvious that this cannot be fair but showing that it is unlawful is very complex. I wonder if the report revealed any women doing equal work being paid more than a male equivalent? The legislation cuts both ways.”
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 it asserts it relates to other factors such as viewers’ demands and preferences), the differential treatment is justified.”
And, Alex Bearman, Partner at Russell-Cooke, says: “If female stars in this list see male colleagues doing a similar job being paid considerably more than them, they might well be motivated to pursue a claim. The BBC will need to consider carefully how any such disparities can be justified.”
Updated
Belatedly here’s a link to the BBC’s annual report. And here’s a full list of who is paid what.
Updated
Sky’s Beth Rigby gives a possible explanation why Sarah Montague, the Today’s programme second longest serving presenter, does not appear on the list of plus £150,000 earners.
The mystery of Sarah Montague's absence from #BBCpay list. She's in same band as Webb (£150k-£200k). But works fewer shifts so paid less
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) July 19, 2017
George Osborne’s London Evening Standard says the BBC has serious questions to answer over senior pay.
Its editorial says:
How can a public-service organisation that should be promoting gender equality justify its top male stars earning much more than their female stars? Is Chris Evans really worth four times more than Strictly’s Claudia Winkleman? Then there is the size of the salaries. The BBC says it is in an international market for top talent, and some of its people have recently left to join the likes of Spotify and Apple. That competition may be true of its real stars but do you really need to pay Stephen Nolan (exactly, who?) £450,000 a year? And being on the BBC gives performers and presenters an audience that allows them to earn a lot extra in appearance fees and publishing spin-offs. We need to see much more evidence that the BBC management really are managing their £1 billion talent bill.
Here's our editorial @EveningStandard on the real BBC challenge: not pay in west London but West Coast competition https://t.co/hPnowJ961x
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) July 19, 2017
That Today programme interview between Mishal Husain and Tony Hall was a perfect vignette to illustrate the gender pay in BBC, writes Jane Martinson.
“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.
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.
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.
Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman has accused the BBC of sex discrimination in the way it spends public money.
Speaking to BBC News she said the corporation would have to change.
“It is very important that the lid has been lifted on this pay discrimination in the BBC ... the old boys network where they are feathering their own nests and each others and there is discrimination and unfairness against women,” Harman said.
She added: “Although everybody will think it is very unfair and outrageous this is a moment now when it can be sorted out.”
She also accused the corporation of hypocrisy on equality.
Everybody talks the talks of equality, but what’s shown is they are not walking the walk. This is a moment they have got to change.
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.
At the press conference to launch the report Lord Hall was asked about the variation in salaries paid to the Today programme team.
He said: “I don’t want to talk about individuals when it comes to the Today programme, but let me just say you would be wrong to say that the lowest paid member of the presenting team is a woman.
“Leave it at that.”
The salary list puts Mishal Husain’s Today programme interview with Hall in context (see earlier). She was paid up to £250,000 compared to John Humphrys who is on up to £650,000.
Humphrys, 73, joined the BBC in 1966. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the Nine O’Clock News, and since 1987 has been a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Since 2003 he has been the host of the BBC Two quiz show Mastermind.
Husain, born in 1973, joined the BBC in 1998 as a junior producer. She is also a presenter on the Today programme, as well as BBC World News and BBC Weekend News. Of the other Today presenters, Nick Robinson earns from £250,000 to £299,999, Justin Webb earns between £150,000 and £199,999, and Sarah Montague does not earn enough to feature on the list.
BBC director general, Tony Hall, claims the BBC commitments to gender and diversity parity will change the media market.
But in a statement to launch the BBC’s annual report he did not repeat his Today programme pledge to close the gender pay gap. He said:
“On gender and diversity, the BBC is more diverse than the broadcasting industry and the Civil Service. We have set the most stretching targets in the industry for on-air diversity and we’ve made progress, but we recognise there is more to do and we are pushing further and faster than any other broadcaster.
“At the moment, of the talent earning over £150,000, two thirds are men and one third are women. We’ve set a clear target for 2020: we want all our lead and presenting roles to be equally divided between men and women. And it’s already having an impact. If you look at those on the list who we have hired or promoted in the last three years, 60% are women and nearly a fifth come from a BAME background.
“Meeting our goal on this is going to have a profound impact not just on the BBC, but the whole media industry. It’s going to change the market for talent in this country.
The salaries of TV stars like Graham Norton and Fiona Bruce should be the least of our worries, according to Abi Wilkinson.
Writing on the Guardian opinion she says:
The world’s eight richest men own as much wealth as half the world’s population. In the UK, billionaires buy up media outlets and donate to political parties (most commonly, the Conservatives) in an attempt to influence our democracy.
Rupert Murdoch (net worth: £9.3bn) doesn’t only want you to be angry at BBC performers being paid more than £150,000 per year. His newspapers frequently attack unemployed benefit claimants as a drain on the working population, while simultaneously suggesting that migrant workers are to blame for Brits being unable to find jobs. The more that ordinary people can be encouraged to blame each other for their hardship, the less likely it is that elites will be challenged.
Maybe, though, this BBC report could be used to spark a more sincere debate about inequality. Another piece of research released today is likely to receive less attention, but also deserves consideration in this context. The TUC has found a 25% salary gap between the richest and poorest regions of the UK, which major knock-on effects for local economies. People living in places like the West Midlands, Wales and the north-west are far less likely to be able to find well paid work than those in London and the south-east.
We need to stop viewing extreme income equality as unavoidable, and realise that our economy is something we have significant power to shape. If you have thoughts on BBC employees’ renumeration, take a step back and broaden that out. What would a fair society look like?
Graham Ruddick has more details on the gender pay gap.
On BBC gender imbalance - also important who is not on list - Sarah Montague, Emily Maitls, Louise Minchin and Hazel Irvine
— Graham Ruddick (@GrahamtRuddick) July 19, 2017
Top seven BBC all male - Chris Evans, Gary Lineker, Graham Norton, Jeremy Vine, John Humphrys, Huw Edwards, Steve Wright
— Graham Ruddick (@GrahamtRuddick) July 19, 2017
Alot of explaining for BBC to do, but look to be clear gender imbalances in news and sport. Eg - John McEnroe paid same as Clare Balding...
— Graham Ruddick (@GrahamtRuddick) July 19, 2017
The gender pay gap at the BBC is revealed in several stark examples. Here’s a selection:
- Huw Edwards (£550,000 to £599,999) and Fiona Bruce (£350,000 to £399,999)
- John Humphrys (£600,000 to £649,999) and Mishal Husain (£200,000 to £250,000)
- Gary Lineker (£1,750,000 to £1,799,999) and Clare Balding (£150,000 to £199,999)
- Derek Thompson (£350,000 to £399,999) and Gillian Taylforth (£150,000 to £199,999)
- Nick Knowles (£300,000 to £349,999) and Mel Giedroyc (£150,000 to £199,000) and
- Matt Baker (£450,000 to £499,000) and Alex Jones (£400,000 to £449,000).
Chris Evans was paid at least £2.2m by the BBC last year while Gary Lineker collected more than £1.75m and Graham Norton over £850,000, according to figures published by the corporation that highlight significant gender imbalances in its top stars’ salaries.
The three male presenters are the top earners on an unprecedented list of the BBC’s highest-paid stars that the corporation published on Wednesday as part of its annual report. Only a third of the 96 top-earners are female and the top seven are all male.
The list includes 96 actors, presenters, journalists and panelists who were paid more than £150,000 in the last financial year. The BBC fought against the list being published but was forced to by the government as part of its new 11-year royal charter.
The list reveals a major gender imbalance among the BBC’s top earners. Only two women – Claudia Winkleman, who presents Strictly Come Dancing, and Alex Jones, presenter of the One Show – are listed as earning more than £400,000 compared to 12 men. Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, earns between £200,000 and £249,999 – less than PM host Eddie Mair, who earns between £300,000 and £349,999.
There are also some high-profile female absentees from the list. Emily Maitlis, the newsreader, Sarah Montague, the presenter of the Today programme on Radio 4, and Louise Minchin, who presents BBC Breakfast, do not earn more than £150,000 a year according to the disclosure.
In contrast, Huw Edwards, who presents the news as well as major events and documentaries, earned between £550,000 and £599,999; John Humphrys, who presents Today and Mastermind, collected £600,000 to £649,999; and Dan Walker, who presented Breakfast, Football Focus and Olympic coverage in 2016, was paid £200,000 to £249,999.
ITV presenter and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been widely criticised for breaking the BBC’s embargo on the salaries, almost an hour early.
BBC News stars' salaries:
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 19, 2017
1. Jeremy Vine: £700k-£749k
2. Huw Edwards: £550k-£599k
Highest paid woman:
Fiona Bruce: £350k-£399k
He claimed that breaking the embargo was a scoop.
Oh settle down, petal.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 19, 2017
I just scooped you. Be better next time. https://t.co/O9EQAHPFak
Aww...somebody got scooped and is feeling very, VERY angry. 😆😆😆 https://t.co/Q0FkWfwIwZ
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 19, 2017
I understand the word 'scoop' better. https://t.co/Xu7w8P9QtP
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 19, 2017
Top ten BBC salaries revealed
These are the names of the stars in the top ten salary bands revealed in the annual report.
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
We’d like you to share your reaction and thoughts on the BBC salaries. What do you think about the salaries of BBC stars’? And what do you think about the gender pay gap?
You can fill in the form below and we’ll use a selection of responses in our reporting.
Former Labour communication chief Alastair Campbell and former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger put the Daily Mail’s criticism of BBC salaries in context.
As the Mail fuels up the bile barrels for the BBC remember Dacre earns more than the lot of them. And has enough homes for his own village
— Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret) July 19, 2017
Useful context: what major British media organisations pay for top talent #BBCpay pic.twitter.com/gyRzXI1bVZ
— alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) July 19, 2017
The BBC press office has been furiously tweeting a positive spin on today’s annual report.
Among its highlights of an “incredible year at the BBC” are dancing flamingoes on Planet Earth, Ed Balls on Strictly Come Dancing, and that interview with a diplomat which was gatecrashed by his kids.
We don't know where to begin. That dance. That interview. That bedtime story. And so much more. A year in sixty seconds on the #BBC. pic.twitter.com/quSv7eL9Pt
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) July 19, 2017
It also cites polling to suggest that almost 80% of people agree that the BBC should be able to attract the highest quality talent. The picture montage used to illustrate the point suggest a gender and racial balance among the top earners that is unlikely to be borne out when the figures are published.
Nearly 4 in 5 people think the BBC should try to get the best talent, even if that means paying similar to what others pay. #BBCPay pic.twitter.com/GTPWl51BQx
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) July 19, 2017
Here's something we may actually be biased about - we reckon this is a pretty good deal. #BBC pic.twitter.com/kKsc8eiaBr
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) July 19, 2017
The LibDems have also welcomed Hall’s commitment to closing the gender pay gap at the BBC.
Jo Swinson MP, a former junior equalities minister in the coalition government, told Today that eliminating the pay gap should be done as quickly as possible.
But she doubted whether the BBC would be able to achieve gender pay parity by 2020 as Hall promised, describing it as a “hard nut to crack.”
Swinson said: “I’m glad he says that. I think he is perhaps over optimistic.”
She added: “The first step has to be getting the data, so that you can then look and often be shocked by what the data says. But at least that acts as real wake up call and its stops the problem being invisible.”
On senior pay generally she said: “Transparency is one of the ways that the problem of very high executive pay can start to be addressed. When they have to be publicly justified then I think you perhaps get some more sensitive decisions made.”
For a party that campaigned on a manifesto for the many not the few, Labour has issued a measured response to the BBC salaries.
Tom Watson, shadow secretary of state for culture, said:
“The BBC is one of the world’s greatest broadcasters and we shouldn’t be surprised that its top stars - who millions of people tune in to watch and listen to every week - are well paid.
“Labour recognises the BBC’s dilemma: the need to give licence payers value for money while operating in a competitive commercial environment against other broadcasters who do not have to disclose what they pay.”
But he criticised the gender pay gap at the corporation. Watson said: “It’s wrong that only a third of the BBC’s highest paid stars are women, and we welcome Lord Hall’s commitment to close the gender pay gap by 2020. It would be good to see a similar commitment, and similar levels of transparency, from other media organisations - especially those who are criticising the BBC today.”
Former BBC chairman Lord Grade, has echoed his successor Lord Hall, in warning that publication of the senior salaries will be inflationary.
Speaking to the Today programme he said:
“I can hear the phones ringing all over the UK today... Agents will be looking at the relative rates others are getting, clients are going be up in arms, the competition will be looking at it.
“The net result of this is inflation. There’s only way this can go and that is that the talent salaries and wages will round upwards, they won’t go down. I guarantee you that.”
Opponents of the BBC are using the publication of the top salaries as another stick to be beat the corporation with.
As people realise how much the BBC elite trouser in terms of license fee cash, I hope it helps brings forward the end of the license fee
— Douglas Carswell (@DouglasCarswell) July 19, 2017
Why is it "damaging" the BBC for its spending to be transparent to those who fund it? Same arrogance we heard re FOI, then over MPs expenses https://t.co/IQFOQZHSJw
— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) July 19, 2017
DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE: 'Pay panic at the BBC' #skypapers pic.twitter.com/JgKYsQsvHb
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 18, 2017
Damian Collins, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, warned the BBC that his committee will be raising the issue of senior pay disparity after the figures are published.
Speaking to Sky News he said: “This could be a really serious issue.
“If it becomes clear that people doing the same job with the same level of experience but being paid at very different levels, people will question why that can be the case.
“There has been concern raised that we may see examples of this.
“This would certainly be a very serious matter.
“This would certainly be something we would take up very strongly with the BBC when the director general and the chairman appear before the select committee in the autumn.”
Updated
Labour MP and former shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant, echoes Hall’s argument about the unfairness of singling out only the salaries of BBC talent.
Bryant, who used to work at the BBC, tweeted that almost those reporting on the issue are opponents of the corporation.
Just remember virtually everyone reporting and commenting on BBC pay today will be a competitor or opponent. #jewelinthecrown
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) July 19, 2017
Ian Birrell, columnist and former speech writer for David Cameron, calls for a level playing field between broadcasters.
Why is BBC only public body forced to reveal high salaries? Surely edict should apply to all or none? Otherwise just seems a partisan attack
— Ian Birrell (@ianbirrell) July 19, 2017
The union representing low-paid production workers at the BBC is stepping up demands for a minimum salary of 20,000, PA reports.
Bectu said it was “unjustifiable” for the corporation to focus on the earnings of those on more than £150,000 when thousands of engineers, technical and other production staff were paid a fraction of that amount.
Gerry Morrissey, leader of Bectu - now part of the Prospect union - said something should be done about low pay. He told the Press Association:
“We have had a claim in for two years for a minimum wage of 20,000 rather than the current 16,000.
“It is totally unacceptable that the BBC is prepared to pay senior management and others many times that amount.
“There should be a lot more focus on giving low-paid staff a decent living wage.”
Mr Morrissey said more than 2,500 production staff were paid less than 20,000.
Hall commits to close gender pay gap by 2020
The BBC director general, Tony Hall, says he is committed to closing the gender pay gap at the BBC by 2020.
In a sometimes awkward interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme presenter Mishal Hussain, Hall said: “By 2020 we will have equality between men and women on air, and we will also have the pay gap sorted by then too.”
He added: “The average gender pay gap for the UK is just over 18%, our figure is 10%. I’m committed to making sure we do something about it.”
Hussain, whose pay is unlikely to match some of her male co-presenters when the salaries are published at 11am, pressed Hall on whether male salaries will be cut or female salaries raised.
Hall said: “We will be working through case by case to ensure that I can sit here in 2020 and look you in the eye, and more importantly look our licence fee-payers in the eye, and say we have equality of pay between men and women ... We have to manage within our means. You know that and I know that. We have got to look after public money very very carefully.”
Hall said the decision to publish salaries was a “bad idea” but he conceded that the BBC had lost the argument. He said:
“Trying to compare names with what they are paid is actually very difficult. It is one of the reasons we said this was a bad idea ... there is one person doing one job sitting next to another person doing another jobs, they may be doing different other programmes. So comparisons are very very hard. That’s one of the worries we have got to manage and help through today.”
Hall also said he feared that other broadcasters would poach BBC talent as a result of today’s figures. He said: “Part of the difficulty that the public has in judging this, is that it is only us publishing these things, it is not anybody else publishing it. We were against this because we thought it was going to be inflationary. And we believed it would tempt other people with deep pockets to come after our talent. We lost that argument, let’s get on with it.”
Hall defended the pay levels of all 96 stars on the list. “I’m satisfied with all of the 96 people on the list and what they are being paid,” he said. He added:
“We are seeking to get balance here between the spending of public money and also making sure we have got the right faces on screen and behind the microphone. I think we have been managing to hold down the pay that we pay talent and reducing the pay that we give to talent at a time of real inflation. The total is down by £5m on last year.”
Updated
Summary
The BBC is to publish the names and salaries of its top earners at 11am as part of its annual report.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker who is expected to appear near, or at the top of the list, has already dubbed it “BBC salary day”.
Happy BBC salary day. I blame my agent and the other TV channels that pay more. Now where did I put my tin helmet?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 19, 2017
We will have all the eye-watering detail of the pay packets, or as much detail as the BBC will reveal – the salaries are due to published in bands of £50,000.
We will also track all the reaction and fallout. The BBC has allowed its highest earners to defend their pay on social media.
The list of top earners was demanded by the government in the face of resistance from the BBC. David Cameron initially told the BBC it should disclose the pay of on-air talent earning more than £450,000 but Theresa May cut this to £150,000 after becoming prime minister last year.
That salary is what the prime minister herself is paid.
On Tuesday, the BBC revealed that 96 stars will appear on the list. Only a third are women.
Updated
