I’m a bit bored of talking about the gender pay gap. It’s one of those beyond ridiculous things that we know exists and we know is categorically wrong, but we also know that every time we talk about it, very little has been done about this seismic problem that endures in pretty much every aspect of all of our lives.
And while the recently published earnings the BBC’s golden boys and girls might be easy to give little more notice than a glace and an eye roll, seeing in black and white which stars are earning what is actually pretty important.
We seem to like to put the BBC on a very wobbly pedestal. Never mind all the license fee drama, stress about BBC Three moving online and the Twitter storm that ensued when BBC Good Food recipes came under threat, we still expect, and defend the BBC to be upholding pinnacle of Great British media. So although, rather depressingly, it may not be a shock to hear that there are huge disparities between what the men and women are earning over there, a clear presentation of that fact that yes, institutional sexism exists in the BBC too, might just be the wake up call that we need.
The BBC today published the salariesof those earning more than £150,000 a year and the difference between what the top male and female talent takes home is in no way small. It was revealed that of the people who earned over £250,000, there were nine women and 25 men. Gary Lineker earned at least £1.75 million last year while Sue Barker, the highest earning female sports presenter at the was paid £349,999 at most.
It’s been worked out that the highest paid man at the BBC, Chris Evans, was paid more than four times that of Claudia Winkleman, the BBC’s highest paid woman. The disparities can be found between male and female presenters who co-present on the same show too.
The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, has saidthat when it comes to gender and diversity the corporation 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’.
‘We’ve set a clear target for 2020: we want all our lead and presenting roles to be equally divided between men and women. 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% of women and nearly a fifth come from a BAME background’, he added.
I don't doubt that many of us recognise the BBC as having publically championed its diversity. I also don't doubt that condition of gendered pay at the BBC is mirrored in the other broadcasting and media companies that we all use, not to mention the wider working world where the salaries are significantly less and not under anywhere near the level of scrutiny that those at the BBC are. But the fact that we now have the numbers from one of the country's most beloved service providers, we're forced to face just how big of an issue this is. Here's hoping that seeing it all laid out is only be a good thing for the fight for more level pay scales.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.