Last week, the BBC released a list of their highest-paid employees. Chris Evans, the host of Radio 2’s Breakfast Show, came top of the list, with earnings of between £2.2 million and £2.25 million last year. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker came second, while Graham Norton appeared third.
The release of the list is particularly interesting because it highlights the fact that out of 96 high-earners, only a third are women, and the top seven are all men. We’re safe in assuming that the BBC invests heavily in improving diversity and in promoting women, and yet what we’re seeing is that even in institutions like the BBC, there are things relating to gender equality that can be vastly improved.
It also points to a problem that is found in companies across all industries: the belief that it is “enough” to bring women into the company, when what is in fact needed is not solely a change to the hiring processes and policy, but change internally. By merely addressing the recruitment side of things, you deal only with inequality in a superficial sense. Yes, your company might be made up of equal numbers of men and women, but how much are these respective halves earning, and who occupies the most senior positions? The approach to gender parity needs to be holistic. It needs to concern all areas of the company. The so-called ‘glass ceiling’ must be shattered.
The benefits of having more diversity in a company other than to make industry a fairer, more representative place are obvious, but they still bear remembering. More diverse companies tend to be more successful commercially, more stable and value-driven, and more innovative. After all, without diversity of values, opinions and backgrounds, there is little creative conflict and fewer new ideas generated. Equally, businesses (or news organisations) that are not diverse will have difficulty appealing to a diverse client, reader or viewer base. Put simply, there are strong business and economic cases as well as moral cases for gender parity in the workforce.
Though the gender pay gap in the British workforce is disheartening, it’s encouraging that the response to the BBC salary revelations has revolved less around the sheer amount of money that some of the employees are earning, and more around the disparity in how much men are earning in relation to their female colleagues. Whether those at the top of the list – or those at the top of any organisation – are earning £2 or £2 million, it’s right that there is debate about the gender pay gap, and it’s right that the BBC have committed to closing theirs, even if it won’t happen until 2020.
The public are beginning to realise that gender inequality in the workplace runs deep, and pressure will mount on all organisations to resolve that at every level. Gender parity is moral, economically beneficial and, as this case shows, hugely popular too.