The BBC Narrows, Does Not Close, the Pay Gap Among Male and Female Presenters

The BBC has narrowed the pay gap between male and female presenters, though disparity remains.

After making significant cuts to a number of male stars’ salaries, the British public broadcaster has reduced the male-female split among top-earning talent from 75/25 in 2017 to 60/40, per Deadline. Fourteen women now earn more than £200,000 annually—which is double the number of women doing so last year, The Guardian reports—including Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, Woman’s Hour’s Jane Garvey, and The World at One’s Sarah Montague.

Despite these gains, the highest paid presenters are men, as are two-thirds of those earning more than £150,000 annually. Match of the Day’s Gary Linker is paid between £1.75m and £1.76m, while Strictly Come Dancing’s Claudia Winkelman, the BBC’s highest-paid female star, is paid between £370,000 and £379,000.

This gendered wage disparity reflects a broader one at the BBC, where the median pay gap between men and women is 7.6 percent and the mean pay gap is 8.4 percent. There’s still “more to do,” said BBC director general Tony Hall, who hopes to close the gap by 2020.