Black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic minority employees received median pay 13.2% higher than white colleagues in the BBC’s lowest pay band.
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The BBC is facing fresh scrutiny over staff pay after figures revealed white employees have lower median salaries than ethnic minority colleagues across six of its seven pay bands. Black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic minority employees received median pay 13.2% higher than white colleagues in the BBC’s lowest pay band. At the other end of the scale, ethnic minority workers in the highest band had median salaries 5.3% above their white counterparts.
White employees recorded higher median pay in only one of the BBC‘s seven pay bands, where the difference was just 0.6%. The figures come despite the broadcaster’s commitment to providing “fair, clear and competitive” pay. Former Culture Secretary Sir John Whittingdale, who helped draw up the BBC’s previous Royal Charter in 2016, said the corporation “ought to be paying staff entirely on the basis of the value and merit they contribute for the job they are doing”.
He previously pushed for greater pay transparency at the BBC after significant differences between the salaries of its highest-paid men and women emerged.
Sir John added: “The BBC quite rightly put this discrepancy right, but I would expect the same principle of fair pay to apply to all characteristics, be it race, sexuality, or indeed gender.”
However, the figures do not mean white employees earn less across the BBC as a whole. The corporation’s overall ethnicity pay gap remains 0.7% in favour of white workers because a greater proportion hold some of its higher-paying positions.
The BBC said the proportion of ethnic minority employees in higher-paying jobs increased last year (Image: Getty)
Its annual figures also showed a 7.6% overall pay gap in favour of men. Other differences also emerged, with women in senior leadership roles paid 1.4% more than senior men on average, while disabled managers were paid 7.5% more than non-disabled staff. Among the highest-paid employees, LGBTQ+ staff earned 8.8% more on average than colleagues classed by the BBC as “non LGBTQ+”.
The BBC said the proportion of ethnic minority employees in higher-paying jobs increased last year, producing the “largest year-on-year movement” in its figures.
The broadcaster operates mentoring and development programmes aimed at helping staff from under-represented backgrounds progress through the organisation.
It has also adopted its 50:20:14:25 Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy, which aims for a 50% gender split across the organisation, 20% ethnic minority staff, 14% deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent staff and 25% from working-class backgrounds.
The BBC says these are goals rather than quotas and insists they have no connection to how employees are paid.
Its approach to diversity has faced wider scrutiny after a review published earlier this year found some viewers felt representation was being “shoe-horned” into programmes.
The review said attempts to reflect a diverse Britain had sometimes created a “sense that there needs to be a smattering of diversity in every programme which can lead to inauthentic portrayal”.
The BBC has stressed that differences identified in its pay-gap statistics should not be interpreted as unequal pay for people doing the same work.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC is committed to fair and equal pay for all. We continue to monitor our pay gaps closely and do expect to see small fluctuations year-on-year.”