BBC pays top male star five times more than top woman

Legal experts warned that the BBC could face employment tribunal claims.

Are the BBC paying its TV talent too much?

No”, said director general Tony Hall, adding: “Are we pushing further and faster than any other major broadcaster?

A new BBC pay report has revealed that radio and TV star Chris Evans earns nearly nine times as much as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

Chris Evans gets the most overall £2.2 million, followed by Gary Lineker and Graham Norton. Winkleman’s co-host Tess Daly sat in between the £350,000 ($456,000) to £399,000 ($519,000) pay bracket. Clearly it can’t be seen to support larger salaries for men, but also, can it support these large salaries in the first place?

Match of the Day presenter Lineker is on £1.75 million- £1.79 million a year and is the Beeb’s second top earner behind Chris Evans with pundit Shearer down in in ninth on £400,000 – £449,999 a year.

Sarah Montague, the Today programme host, is the sole member of the Radio 4 flagship show’s presenting team not to be included in the list of the BBC’s best paid staff. Her… He earned between £600,000 and £649,999.

“The BBC produces some of the nation’s most loved television and radio and the most trusted news, while operating in a competitive market with the likes of Sky, ITV, Netflix and Amazon”. The ONS says: “At 18.1%, the gap in average pay between men and women, for all employees, is the lowest since records began”. Among the Strictly judges, Darcey Bussell was on between £150,000 and £199,999, while Len Goodman received between £200,000 and £249,999, as did Bruno Tonioli.

The list doesn’t include BBC talent paid by outside production companies.

The BBC’s disclosure of staff that earn more than £150,000 a year has highlighted significant gender imbalances within the publicly funded organisation.

“At the moment, of the talent earning over £150,000, two-thirds are men and one-third are women. Very few people do exactly the same thing”.

Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, defended the pay packages, which are partly funded by public money: “Of the 43,000 talent contracts with the BBC past year, less than a quarter of one per cent were paid more than £150,000”.

Funded by a licence fee levied on all TV-watching households, the BBC holds a central role in British public life, showing everything from royal weddings and sports events to local news and popular dramas through its TV channels, radio stations, and online sites.

From the list of presenters, actors and comedians the results reveal that women only make up one third of the ninety-six strong list.