BBC gender pay gap row highlights wider issue
TV salaries are a stark reminder that women can't afford to ignore negotiating skills
The BBC has caused an outcry after it published salaries of its highest-paid stars – those earning £150,000 or more – and revealed a significant gender pay gap.
Just a third of its 96 top earners are women and just three women feature in the top 10. The broadcaster is also being criticised over the lack of diversity as the top seven earners are all white men.
The BBC’s best-paid star, Chris Evans, took home £2.2 million in the last financial year; the best-paid female star, Claudia Winkleman, collected between £450,000 and £500,000, a fifth of Evans’s wage.
Theresa May, the UK’s prime minister, accused the corporation of paying women less for doing almost identical jobs. “I want to see women paid equally with men”, she said in an interview with LBC. “I think what has happened today is we have seen the way the BBC is paying women less for doing the same job as the men.”
The news broke in the same week that easyJet's Carolyn McCall was named CEO of the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV: she will be the organisation’s first female chief executive. However, it is understood that ITV has been negotiating with McCall, in particular, over her remuneration package.
Kathleen O'Connor, Visiting Associate Professor, Organisational Behaviour, said: “The pay gap is so clear and pervasive in this case [with the BBC], it's difficult to argue that women could have negotiated harder.
“However, it does remind us that women should be prepared to negotiate in other contexts.”
O'Connor wrote for London Business School Review: “100 minutes is the amount of time that the Chartered Management Institute estimates women are underpaid every day in comparison to their male colleagues.”
Over the course of a year, it adds up to a staggering 57 days – nearly two calendar months. That equates to an average 22% of salary.
“Ann Francke, the Chartered Management Institute’s Chief Executive, has suggested that men’s bonuses can be twice those of their female counterparts because their bosses – perhaps unconsciously – want to avoid a fight.”
Lack of information in the market makes it harder for women to negotiate, O'Connor added. “That’s the big lesson from the BBC: transparency.
“Studies show that women are less likely to negotiate their compensation relative to men. Moreover, they ask for less and accept less relative to men in the absence of market information.” Women need access to market information to enable them to justify the ask. When that information is available, women have a better chance of taking home what they deserve.
O’Connor sets out three negotiating skills women can’t afford to ignore:
1. Manage your networks deliberately – yes, strong networks provide strong support, but weaker ties can also be a source of helpful resources such as expertise, advice and information.
2. Take a communal approach – studies show that women who use the same goal-directed and self-interested tactics as men are punished by their counterparts at the negotiating table. It may be better to take a collaborative approach.
3. Hear “no” as “not yet” – research suggests that hearing “no” may be especially difficult for women and could be a barrier to asking at all. Start to think how you might be able to change that “no” into a “yes” by putting forward your request in a different way.
