Members of Parliament have called for the BBC to reveal the salaries of some of its biggest stars, if they earn more than the Prime Minister.
A new report released by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee has recommended that those earning over £143,000 should be publically published. This extends to executives, producers, performers, and presenters.
This recommendation is much lower than the Government’s original plans for a new royal charter, which sets a wage of £450,000 as the level for salaries to be released.
A White Paper released earlier this year on the future of the BBC, called for the organisation to reveal those earning over £450,000, as earned by the-then Director-General Tony Hall.
This was expected to reveal the salaries of some of the organisation’s top earners including Chris Evans, Gary Lineker and Claudia Winkleman. However, lowering the limit is expected to expose the pay of news presenters Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce.
The BBC is expected to resist the call claiming that publishing salaries would lead to the poaching of its staff. The committee state, however, that people within the industry are already aware of what employees are getting paid.
Acting Chairman of the committee, Damien Collins MP, said, “The point is that all these salaries are paid by the licence fee payer, whether they are broadcasters or BBC executives. Why should there be different rules for each?”
“Its disingenuous to say confidentiality is needed to prevent poaching when in general everyone in the industry knows what everyone else is getting paid.”
“The threshold should be the same for both executives and talent, the salary of anyone getting paid more than the Prime Minister should be published.”
