Gender Pay Audit at the BBC Reveals a Greater Gap Than the U.K.'s National Average

In 2017, BBC Worldwide was forced by the British government to reveal the salaries of its top stars after a senior editor quit over pay disparity, exposing an astonishing pay gap between the male and female faces at the network. An organizational audit has just revealed it’s even worse than suspected.

UK companies with 250 employees or more have until an April deadline to publicly share their gender pay gap, if it exists, which it probably does! Deadline reports that the BBC has gotten a jump on it with their Equal Pay audit, conducted by law firm Eversheds. The audit has revealed that overall, men make 18.9% more across the company.

For comparison, those numbers are bad:

The mean figure is more than the national mean average of 17.4%, while its median gender pay gap of 16.9% is also less than the 18.4% national average. It also found that there was a gender bonus gap of 33.9% on a mean basis and a 21.7% gap on a median basis, despite the fact that more women received a bonus than men. The company found that its gender pay gap is driven by more men holding senior roles and more women in junior positions.

The BBC plans to fight this imbalance by assuring more women are promoted to senior roles, while increasing positions for men in junior roles for “balance.” Yes, more jobs for men, that’s the ticket. We’ll see who ultimately gets promoted.