Sorry, but the BBC’s actions to reduce the gender pay gap aren’t good enough

And they know it.

The BBC was forced to publish its annual pay report last year after considerable pressure from the Government to increase transparency. But the report didn’t just reveal who were the corporation’s highest earners, it also revealed exactly how much they were paid, and unsurprisingly there was a huge gender pay gap.

The figures showed that men made up two thirds of the highest paid talent at the BBC. In fact in the list of its top ten earners, there were only three women: Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman (earning at most £499,999), The One Show presenter Alex Jones (at most £449,999) and news anchor Fiona Bruce (at most £399,999).

And if you thought that sounded bad, brace yourselves for this one – the top four male BBC presenters collectively earned £5.5 million a year whilst the top four female BBC presenters collectively took home £1,749,996.

Unsurprisingly the news of the inequality prompted outrage, with BBC China editor Carrie Grace publicly quitting her role over the pay disparity between male and female editors

The BBC’s director Lord Hall pledged to close the gap by 2020 – but is it enough?

This week, the BBC’s current highest earners for 2018 were released - and the result was depressing, seeing that men still dominate the list.

Match of the Day host Gary Lineker overtook Chris Evans as the highest earner, taking in between £1.75 million and £1.76 million this year, followed by an addition 11 men, before the BBC’s first female appears.

Claudia Winkleman took home between £370,000 and £379,000 this year, but the fact that she, the BBC’s top earning female, is in 13th place, just proves that not enough has been done to fix the worrying gender pay gap.

‘I’m not satisfied with the fact that there aren’t enough women in the top 20,’ stated Tony Hall, the BBC’s director-general. ‘I’m absolutely not.’

He continued: ‘We’re trying to get a balanced range of men and women with their pay right across the organisation.’

Time is up.