British broadcaster the BBC released a list of its highest paid stars yesterday as part of its new 10-year funding settlement with the Conservative government. The disclosure revealed a significant gender pay gap among BBC’s top talent with its top-earning male employee making five times more than the highest-earning woman. What’s more: only a third of the 96 highest-paid employees overall are women, and the top seven are all men.
No. 1 on the list is Chris Evans, the presenter who took over as host of Top Gear for one season after Jeremy Clarkson defected to Amazon two years ago. He made between £2.2 million and £2.25 million in 2016-2017. The highest-paid woman, meanwhile, was Claudia Winkleman, who earned between £450,000 and £500,000.
The gap is so blatant that experts say the broadcaster is at risk of being sued for gender discrimination. Prime Minister Theresa May even weighed in on the matter: “We’ve seen the way the BBC is paying women less for doing the same job,” she said. “What’s important is that the BBC looks at the question of paying men and women the same for doing the same job.”
News of a company’s gender pay gap is—unfortunately—not unique, but there’s an extra layer to the BBC’s. The bulk of the broadcaster’s funding comes from a mandatory and flat-rate license fee that every household with a TV in the U.K. must pay. That means public money is funding the yawning divide.