Six top male journalists at the BBC have agreed to take pay cuts, two weeks after a woman editor resigned alleging unequal compensation with male colleagues. Last year, a report by the media organisation found that two-thirds of the employees who earned more than £150,000 (Rs 1.28 crore) a year were male.
“We are very grateful to Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine, who have agreed that their pay will now be reduced,” said the BBC’s Media Editor Amol Rajan on Friday.
“The final details of some of these changes are being discussed, and there are further conversations that the BBC will have with others in due course,” Rajan said.
When asked about his pay cut, radio broadcaster Jeremy Vine said: “I think it needs to be sorted out and I support my female colleagues who have rightly said they should be paid the same when they are doing the same job. It is just a no-brainer, so it was not a problem for me to accept one.”
Vine earned between £700,000 (Rs 6.34 crore) and £749,999 (Rs 6.79 crore) in 2016-’17.
Earlier in January, the BBC’s top editor in China, Carrie Gracie, resigned from her post because of pay inequality with male colleagues. In an open letter posted on her website on January 8, Gracie said there was a “crisis of trust” at the BBC and warned that it was “breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure”.
“I am not asking for more money,” she had said. “I believe I am very well paid already – especially as someone working for a publicly funded organisation. I simply want the BBC to abide by the law and value men and women equally.”
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