BBC Womens pay gap

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Discussion

Cupramax

Original Poster:

10,469 posts

251 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Am I the only one mildly amused by Carrie Gracies hissy fit about the gender pay gap at the Beeb. While I note she "resigned" from her post as China editor she is of course still staying on the tax payer gravy train as a newsreader/presenter. Oh how i laughed, clearly her morals dont stretch to resigning entirely due to the money stream not being quite so bad in that job? Perhaps they should make an example of her and give her the boot, but no, the hand wringers would have a field day. laugh

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5244299/Ca...

PurpleMoonlight

22,362 posts

156 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
They are all vastly overpaid at our forced expense.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 8th January 2018
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A pathetic flounce is what it is.

juice

8,508 posts

281 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
I heard on the news that they offered her a payrise that she turned down and then complained about the pay gap ?

Did I misunderstand/mis-hear that ?

Cupramax

Original Poster:

10,469 posts

251 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Nope, thats pretty much as i heard it too, does seem a bit bizarre watching BBC reporting on themselves.

55palfers

5,892 posts

163 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
juice said:
I heard on the news that they offered her a payrise that she turned down and then complained about the pay gap ?

Did I misunderstand/mis-hear that ?
Nope.

She turned down a £45K pay rise.

If she's resigned, how come she was on R4's "Today" this morning.

How many organisations allow you to resign from one job, trash your employer's pay policy in public, then find you another job.

She presumably took a job at a mutually negotiated salary she must have been happy with at the time - she then discovers others are paid more. That's life.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
BBC is no different to the vast majority of companies with subjective pay. There is always a big spread.

Know of one company with ~40 folks (men and women) doing exactly the same middle-management job, where pay ranges from ~£35k to ~£120k. Some of the higher-paid folk were lucky enough to know the budgetholder as a friend / previous colleague and to join in a particularly buoyant company period.

Digga

40,204 posts

282 months

Monday 8th January 2018
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PurpleMoonlight said:
They are all vastly overpaid at our forced expense.
This. Disgraceful there is any pay gap; by gender, race or any other differential, but I'd far sooner the hugely-overpaid bloke's pay was trimmed down to match the merely overpaid women than vice versa.

richie99

1,116 posts

185 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Is she supposed to be a well known personality? Have never heard of her although I gather I have been paying her,apparently inadequate, salary for a long time. Apparently the large pay rise she was offered was not enough to bring her to the same salary as the other errm.....china editors (or something). As already said, not much of a flounce as she is still happy give her (dis)loyalty to the organisation which she says treats women so disgracefully.

No sense that she is prepared to test her real value in an open employment market. Probably wouldn't like the answer.

Cupramax

Original Poster:

10,469 posts

251 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
55palfers said:
If she's resigned, how come she was on R4's "Today" this morning.

How many organisations allow you to resign from one job, trash your employer's pay policy in public, then find you another job.
This was my point entirely, can you imagine the reaction if this happened in pretty much any normal company, you'd be out of your desk so quick your feet wouldnt touch the ground, plus the fact discussing pay rates is usually against most companies rules.

BBC staff obviously think they are above any of this.

barryrs

4,376 posts

222 months

Monday 8th January 2018
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Surprised she isnt employed via her own personal service company.

Europa1

10,923 posts

187 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
juice said:
I heard on the news that they offered her a payrise that she turned down and then complained about the pay gap ?

Did I misunderstand/mis-hear that ?
You didn't mis-hear it - they offered to up her pay from £135,000 to £180,000, but that still wasn't in the same bracket as Jon Sopel, their America editor (but is in the same bracket as Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East editor). Jon Sopel is apparently in the £200,000-249,999 bracket.

I am sceptical as to how much of this is actually "news" - she has been presenting the Today programme since around Christmas time, so one wonders how long it's been brewing, whether her open letter was agreed by the BBC prior to its release etc.

Given her issue is with how much her male counterparts are paid in comparison, I am not sure pairing her with John Humphrys on the Today programme is the best move - he is in the £600,000-649,999 pay bracket...(yes he does Mastermind and some other stuff but I'm sure that doesn't account for the multiplier).



nikaiyo2

4,670 posts

194 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Europa1 said:
You didn't mis-hear it - they offered to up her pay from £135,000 to £180,000, but that still wasn't in the same bracket as Jon Sopel, their America editor (but is in the same bracket as Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East editor). Jon Sopel is apparently in the £200,000-249,999 bracket.

I am sceptical as to how much of this is actually "news" - she has been presenting the Today programme since around Christmas time, so one wonders how long it's been brewing, whether her open letter was agreed by the BBC prior to its release etc.

Given her issue is with how much her male counterparts are paid in comparison, I am not sure pairing her with John Humphrys on the Today programme is the best move - he is in the £600,000-649,999 pay bracket...(yes he does Mastermind and some other stuff but I'm sure that doesn't account for the multiplier).
Haven't Bowen, Sopel, Humphrys etc been household name newsies for quite a considerable time? Surely that would explain the pay gap quite well, wouldn't it? Does Carrie Gracie have the same "level" of recognition as the others, as a From Our Own Correspondent avid listener her name rang the tiniest of tiny bells no more, until this morning.

OK China is an important desk now, but arguably it has not, historically, had the same level of importance as the US, or "workload" and or danger money of the ME?

I seem to recall Bowen being on the TV all the time during the Gulf War, so I would imagine his higher pay is due, at least in part, to it being a "stty" assignment, coupled with years and years in post resulting in the higher base inflating more with pay rises over that time.

Murph7355

37,648 posts

255 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Europa1 said:
...
Given her issue is with how much her male counterparts are paid in comparison, I am not sure pairing her with John Humphrys on the Today programme is the best move - he is in the £600,000-649,999 pay bracket...(yes he does Mastermind and some other stuff but I'm sure that doesn't account for the multiplier).
Maybe they're both employed differently (she a direct employee, he rented out to a ltd co. or similar?).

Either way, her flounce would put some on here to shame smile

Gargamel

14,957 posts

260 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
nikaiyo2 said:
Haven't Bowen, Sopel, Humphrys etc been household name newsies for quite a considerable time? Surely that would explain the pay gap quite well, wouldn't it? Does Carrie Gracie have the same "level" of recognition as the others, as a From Our Own Correspondent avid listener her name rang the tiniest of tiny bells no more, until this morning.

OK China is an important desk now, but arguably it has not, historically, had the same level of importance as the US, or "workload" and or danger money of the ME?

I seem to recall Bowen being on the TV all the time during the Gulf War, so I would imagine his higher pay is due, at least in part, to it being a "stty" assignment, coupled with years and years in post resulting in the higher base inflating more with pay rises over that time.
I think you are making excuses for a poor organisation, being badly managed. The BBC have known this is a sensitive issue for a couple of years, they could have got the house in order, but they haven't.

motco

15,918 posts

245 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Europa1 said:
juice said:
I heard on the news that they offered her a payrise that she turned down and then complained about the pay gap ?

Did I misunderstand/mis-hear that ?
You didn't mis-hear it - they offered to up her pay from £135,000 to £180,000, but that still wasn't in the same bracket as Jon Sopel, their America editor (but is in the same bracket as Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East editor). Jon Sopel is apparently in the £200,000-249,999 bracket.

I am sceptical as to how much of this is actually "news" - she has been presenting the Today programme since around Christmas time, so one wonders how long it's been brewing, whether her open letter was agreed by the BBC prior to its release etc.

Given her issue is with how much her male counterparts are paid in comparison, I am not sure pairing her with John Humphrys on the Today programme is the best move - he is in the £600,000-649,999 pay bracket...(yes he does Mastermind and some other stuff but I'm sure that doesn't account for the multiplier).
I'm afraid that I'd reduce the men's salaries down the women's and then half them for both. They're grotesquely overpaid out of our money and even then would still be. Fifty thousand is plenty for any of them IMHO. If it were a commercial operation with shareholders to account to then they'd pay to the level the shareholders approved of, but the BBC is not commercial as such.

SpeedMattersNot

4,506 posts

195 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
PurpleMoonlight said:
They are all vastly overpaid at our forced expense.
No once forces you to use the service. Plenty of people don't pay for it, myself included.

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
They had somebody on BBC breakfast this morning talking about it.

On the one hand she said Gracie’s role was the same as the role performed by men who are being paid more......but then went on to list all the reasons the role was different and ended up concluding that Gracie should be being paid more than the men.

So which is it - the role is the same in which case pay equality should be looked at. Or it’s not the same in which case the salaries for the roles are independent and it’s up to you to accept or negotiate the salary being offered?

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
I think you are making excuses for a poor organisation, being badly managed. The BBC have known this is a sensitive issue for a couple of years, they could have got the house in order, but they haven't.
Many companies have salary banding for roles though. In some companies I have worked for - even relatively junior roles can differ by £15k-£20k between the top and bottom of the band for a given role.

Where you find yourself within that band is a function of experience, qualifications, years of service, annual appraisal results, your strength as a negotiator and whether you have come into the role as an internal or external candidate.

Europa1

10,923 posts

187 months

Monday 8th January 2018
quotequote all
motco said:
I'm afraid that I'd reduce the men's salaries down the women's and then half them for both. They're grotesquely overpaid out of our money and even then would still be. Fifty thousand is plenty for any of them IMHO. If it were a commercial operation with shareholders to account to then they'd pay to the level the shareholders approved of, but the BBC is not commercial as such.
The thorny issue is that in large part the BBC is in a commercial marketplace.