The BBC has this week published its annual report which lists the salaries of its top-paid on-screen and on-air presenters for the last financial year, with the top 12 earners all being men.
2018 BBC Gender Pay Report
Last year’s report caused controversy over both the number of men in the list and the examples of unequal pay between show co-hosts.
This year’s report has revealed that Gary Lineker (earning £1.75million to £1.76million in 2017/18) has overtaken Chris Evans (£1.66million to £1.67million) as the corporation’s top earner. Whilst, Claudia Winkleman remains the highest paid woman on the list (13th), earning up to £379,999.
According to the report, the salaries of Chris Evans, Graham Norton, Jeremy Vine and John Humphrys have dropped since last year. The BBC have said the salaries published do not yet fully reflect the pay rises and pay cuts that they have put into place, which have not yet filtered through and this will be reflected in 2019’s salary list.
It should be noted that certain shows, such as Strictly Come Dancing and the One Show, are not included in this list as the BBC Studios production company is deemed to be a separate commercial entity.
This follows on from last week when the BBC published its gender pay gap (the median figure having reduced from 9.3% to 7.6%) which does seem to suggest that the corporation is making progress towards its goal of eradicating its gender pay gap by 2020.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
The obligation on larger employers (those with 250 or more staff) to publish an annual report containing data on its gender pay gap came into force last year. The affected employers have to publish the results of six specific calculations relating to the earnings and benefits received by their male and female staff on an annual basis.
This information must be published on an organisation’s website and a government website, and must remain publically available for three years.
Equal Pay
The Equality Act 2010 sets out the principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work (this means those doing the like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value).
- Like work: the work is the same or broadly similar (in reality, not just according to any written job description).
- Work rated as equivalent: an employer has conducted a job evaluation scheme which rates to jobs as equivalent “in terms of the demands made on a worker”.
- Work of equal value: an employee can show that her job is equal “in terms of the demands made” by reference to effort, skill and decision-making.
The employer has a defence to any claim if they can show that the difference in contractual terms is due to a material factor, which is not connected with gender.
Top 5 Tips For Tackling Inequalities In Pay And Reducing Your Gender Pay Gap
- Consider an equal pay audit to look at the job roles in your organisation and what each employee is paid.
- Encourage paternity leave and shared parental leave, allowing mothers to return to work earlier and earn more money.
- Promote agile working to accommodate working parents and consider subsidising childcare.
- Consider whether to implement a salary sacrifice scheme, or if any existing benefits could be provided in this way, so that their value would not need to be reported in your gender pay report.
- Be transparent around pay.
How Can Nelsons Help?
Laura Kearsley is a specialist Employment Law Partner at Nelsons.
For more information on your equal pay obligations, please contact us on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form, and a member of our Employment Law team will be happy to discuss your situation.