Join our distinguished panel – including Harriet Harman, who introduced the legislation requiring gender pay data reporting - to discuss what the figures show, the implications for companies and the sector more broadly, and what can and should be done to narrow the gender pay gap.
The differences in pay received by men and women in television has been starkly revealed as television and production companies publish their gender pay data.
Our distinguished panel – including Harriet Harman, who introduced the legislation requiring gender pay data reporting - discussed what the figures show, the implications for companies and the sector more broadly, and what can and should be done to narrow the gender pay gap.
The huge disparity between the salaries of male and female on-air talent at the BBC has attracted widespread and much-deserved criticism. But recently released figures on the gender pay gap reveal that discrimination exists across television, from the top to the bottom of the industry.
Channel 4 recorded the worst (mean) average pay gap – of 28.6% – of the major UK broadcasters, followed by: UKTV at 17.9%; ITV, 16.4%; the BBC, 10.7%; Sky: 5.2%; and Channel 5, where women are, in fact, paid 2.9% more than men.
Following the release of gender pay data from broadcasters, a panel including Jane Corbin, Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, Sian Kevill, Charlotte Sweeney OBE and Jane Martinson discussed the topic of pay differences received by men and women in television and what needs should and can be done to tackle the issue at RTS event Mind the Gap: Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Television.
Click here to read the event report, or to watch highlights of the event.
The former Minister for Women and Equality was the key architect of the Equality Act 2000, which introduced a requirement to report gender pay gaps.
“We should not be discussing it anymore – we should be setting targets to close [the gap],” she continued. “Year on year, we need to see progress and we need to have stretching targets – these gaps are not there for us to be gnashing our teeth at or for admiring those that have lower gaps, they are there for us to make progress towards equal pay.”
