BBC pays Radio 4 presenter Sarah Montague £1MILLION after equal pay probe – following her ‘rage’ at learning fellow Today host John Humphrys’ was paid up to £649,000 while she was on £133,000
- Sarah Montague was paid £133,000 for her role on the Today programme
- 2017 figures revealed that John Humphrys received £600,000 to £649,000
- She previously said she was ‘incandescent with rage’ after realising difference
The BBC has paid Radio 4 presenter Sarah Montague (pictured) £1million following an internal investigation into equal pay
The BBC has paid Radio 4 presenter Sarah Montague £1million following an internal investigation into equal pay.
Ms Montague previously admitted she was ‘incandescent with rage’ and ‘felt a sap’ after discovering her £133,000 salary paled in comparison to the £600,000 to £649,000 John Humphrys received, according to 2017 figures.
The pair had presented the Today programme together for 18 years.
A source told The Sun that Ms Montague, 53 – who now presents The World at One – didn’t do it for the payout.
They said: ‘It was the principle of doing the same job as a man, and being paid, and treated, the same.’
In 2018, Ms Montague said: ‘I had long suspected that I was paid much less than my colleagues but until the pay disclosures I had no idea of the scale of that difference.
‘Some years ago I was even assured by a manager that I was not the lowest paid on the programme.’
Ms Montague (left, in 2005) previously admitted she was ‘incandescent with rage’ and ‘felt a sap’ after discovering her £133,000 salary paled in comparison to the £600,000 to £649,000 John Humphrys (right, in 2013) received, according to 2017 figures
Ms Montague – who began her BBC career in 1997 as a presenter on the BBC news channel and has since worked on Newsnight, BBC Breakfast and been a regular presenter of Hardtalk for 20 years – said she also learned that ‘the true situation was far worse’.
She added: ‘Apart from John Humphrys, I was the only Today programme presenter not on a full staff contract.’
This comes after journalist Samira Ahmed, 51, took the BBC to a tribunal over her contracts on the programme Newswatch and proved she was unfairly paid less than her male peers
This comes after journalist Samira Ahmed, 51, took the BBC to a tribunal over her contracts on the programme Newswatch, which she has presented since 2012, and proved she was unfairly paid less than her male peers.
She argued that her equal pay comparator Jeremy Vine, 54, who worked on Points of View between 2008 and 2018, was paid £3,000 per episode – whereas she received £440 for her own show.
Both host-led programmes were just under 15 minutes long and let the public air their opinions on BBC content.
Miss Ahmed said that although his fee was reduced to £1,300 in January 2018, hers was only increased in 2015 to £465 per programme – then reduced again when the BBC moved presenters on to employment contracts.
A ruling handed down by Judge Harjit Grewal found unanimously in her favour.
Since then, the BBC paid out more than £3million to its employees in an effort to avoid employment tribunals.
The broadcaster made settlements to certain members of staff and will now decide on whether to make pay outs to around 50 others.