Four of the BBC’s leading male presenters have agreed to take a pay cut.
The news follows recent revelations over equal pay and Carrie Gracie’s resignation letter from her post as BBC China editor.
In that letter, Gracie highlighted the discrepancies between male and female editors at the BBC.
As reported by the BBC, Jeremy Vine, John Humphrys, Huw Edwards, Jon Sopel and Nicky Campbell have all agreed, either formally or in principle, to reduce their salaries.
A few weeks ago, John Humphrys and Jon Sopel were recorded during “an ill-advised off-air conversation which the presenter regrets” regarding the issue of equal pay.
When the BBC recently made their salaries public, it was revealed that Chris Evans was the highest paid presenter, earning between £2.2m and £2.25m in 2016/2017.
The highest-paid female, Claudia Winkleman, only earned between £450,000 and £500,000.
The presenters who have agreed to the cut were listed with the following salaries:
- Jeremy Vine – the Radio 2 presenter earned between £700,000 and £749,999 in 2016/17
- John Humphrys – the Today programme presenter earned between £600,000 and £649,999 in 2016/17
- Huw Edwards – the BBC News presenter earned between £550,000 and £599,999 in 2016/17
- Nicky Campbell – the 5 live Breakfast presenter earned between £400,000 and £449,999 in 2016/17
- Jon Sopel – the BBC’s North America editor earned between £200,000 and £249,999 in 2016/17
An independent audit into equal pay at the BBC will be published next week and Gracie is now returning to the BBC newsroom, saying she expects to be “paid equally”.
