BBC Pays White Staff Less in Almost Every Pay Band

The BBC pays white staff less on average than their ethnic minority colleagues in every pay band bar one, stoking concerns about the impact of the corporation’s diversity drive. The Telegraph has the story.

Black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic minority employees received 13.2% higher median pay than white workers in the corporation’s lowest pay band, and 5.3% more in the highest pay band.

White employees’ median pay was higher – by 0.6% – in just one out of seven pay scales. This is despite the BBC’s commitment to “fair, clear and competitive” pay.

Its annual report also showed that women in senior leadership roles were paid 1.4% more than senior men on average; disabled managers were paid 7.5% more than able-bodied staff; and the highest-paid LGBTQ+ employees earned 8.8% more on average than “non LGBTQ+” colleagues.

The broadcaster’s “pay gap” report said men, the able-bodied, straight and white workers all still benefited from higher average wages when measured as a whole, with its overall ethnicity pay gap standing at 0.7% in favour of white workers and 7.6% in favour of men.

This is because higher proportions of staff from these groups take up a greater share of the top-paying jobs, bringing up the overall average.

However, it said there had been an increase in the proportion of ethnic minority employees in higher-paying jobs last year, resulting in the “largest year-on-year movement” in its figures.

The numbers are likely to stoke wider concerns over internal diversity targets and staff development schemes, which critics have condemned as un-meritocratic. …

The BBC runs a number of mentoring and development schemes aimed at progressing the careers of diverse staff, including programmes designed to “progress talent from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds”.

It has committed to its so-called 50:20:14:25 Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy, which strives for a 50% gender split across the organisation; 20% ethnic minority staff; 14% deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent; and 25% working class. The BBC said these were goals, not quotas, and had no association with pay.

Last year, it applied the representation targets to both its workforce and creative output for the first time.

Worth reading in full.