BBC News Gender Gap Salaries

The publicly funded broadcaster, BBC, published their pay data for the first time on Wednesday. Surprisingly, this information revealed a definitive gender gap. Specifically, the pay data showed that only a small number of the stars are Asian, black or members of another minority, and only one-third of BBC’s top paid stars are women. Thus, BBC has been accused of discrimination, due to the salaries that are now out in the open for the public eye.

In the pay data, it was clear that the only woman who was in the top 10 highest earners was Claudia Winkleman. On that note, Chris Evans and Gary Lineker were BBC’s best paid stars as read by the pay data. All together, only a third of the top earners are female, so the gender gap is clearly apparent. Not to mention, most male earners with identical jobs to female earners, were paid more.

Now that this information has been exposed to the public, lawyers are getting involved. In fact, lawyers have warned BBC that they are likely to receive sex discrimination claims. In fact, Labour Party member Harriet Harman encouraged BBC to stop discriminating against women with public money.

Tony Hall, who is the director general of BBC, reportedly 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.” Hall claimed that he was committed to improving the gap to his best ability.

Hall also said, “On gender and diversity, the BBC is more diverse than the broadcasting industry and the Civil Service,” but he also said that there is “the need to go further and faster.”

BBC is Britain’s central news source, but must stay transparent from now on and adapt to the ever changing environment. Hopefully, Hall will stay true to his word and the broadcaster will grow from this and close the gender gap by 2020.