19 JULY 2017

---

The BBC has published the salaries of its staff earning above £150,000 a year, exposing a major gender imbalance.

Chris Evans tops the list at over £2 million. The highest paid woman at the BBC, Claudia Winkleman, earns just 20% of his salary.

Of the top twenty earners, only five are women - and there are no Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) stars featured in the list of 24 staff earning over £300,000.

Fawcett Chief Executive Sam Smethers says:

"The BBC high pay data revealed today shows that women are under-represented and undervalued at the top of the corporation.

"The question the BBC has to answer is can this be objectively justified or does this reveal institutional sexism?

"We welcome Tony Hall's commitment to close the gender pay gap by 2020. Fawcett will hold him to that and we stand ready to help."

---

Read more

See the full list of top earners at the BBC here.

Fawcett's campaigning led to new gender pay gap reporting legislation, which requires organisations with over 250 employees to publish data on their gender pay gaps, including bonuses, by April 2018. 

READ MORE ABOUT OUR WORK ON CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP HERE.