Graham Norton has taken as swipe at his own employer over their approach to hiring women in the workplace.
The 57-year-old chat show superstar is the third highest paid employee at the BBC – but he has hinted he thinks there are more women on the highest salary list than bosses might want.
Graham – who has helmed his BBC show since 2007, and transferred over to Auntie from Channel 4 in 2005 – signalled he doesn’t think bosses would reward female employees financially if the Corporation wasn’t forced to share the salary’s of its stars.
Of the top 10 earners at the Beeb, only four are female – only one of whom is within the top five.
Graham is quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying: “If they weren’t publishing it there would not be that many women on the list.”
He added: “They’ve been shamed into getting more women on that list.”
The 2020 salaries of BBC staff were unveiled last month – with Match of the Day host Gary Linkeker topping the list with an annual salary of between £1,750,000-£1,754,999.
While BBC Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball was propelled in to second place following a salary increase, brining her to an income between £1,360,000-£1,364,999.
While Graham earns between £725,000-£729,999 for his work on Radio 2 as well as his talk show and hosting position over various awards, events, and other shows.
The rest of the top 10 includes Steve Wright, Huw Edwards, Fiona Bruce, Vanessa Felts, Lauren Laverne, Alan Shearer, and Stephen Nolan.
The BBC was widely criticised in 2017 when salaries were made public showing discrepancies between the income of male and female employees.
The Coorporation has been required since 2017 to publish the salaries of staff that earn over £150,000 per year – with the first public records showing that the 96 employees over £150K were overwhelmingly male.
Of the top earners, 62 were men and 34 were women – with the scandal sparking resignations, while some male employees announced they would be taking pay cuts in reaction to the scandal.
