In July 2017, the BBC came under fire for paying its male staff significantly more than their female counterparts when their pay figures were released.

The 96 highest earning stars at the Corporation were revealed, of them 62 were male and 34 were female, the top seven highest earning stars were all men. 

Men earned an average of £295,000 and women earned an average of £210,000 – a nine per cent difference.

Radio presenter Chris Evans topped the list with a salary of between £2.2million and £2.25 whereas the top female presenter Claudia Winkleman earned between £450,000 and £500,000.

It lead to calls from Culture Secretary Karen Bradley to call for the public service broadcaster to ‘lead the way’ in closing the gender pay gap both on and off screen. 

Apprentice star and Conservative Peer Karren Brady also spoke out on the issue saying ‘The BBC is publicly funded so people want to know where their licence fee is spent and who gets what. 

Gary Lineker earns £1.8 m, while his female equivalent, Clare Balding, is on £199,000. He is not overpaid, she is shockingly underpaid. A lot of the men should be forcing the BBC to pay more.’ 

Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden also blasted the BBC for their gender pay gap. But revealed that she is paid the same salary as her fellow Dragons.

During an appearance on ITV’s Loose Women she said: ‘I’m not a woman in the Den, I’m a Dragon, we’re all there to invest, it has nothing to do with gender. 



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