Zoe Ball’s pay cut means BBC’s highest-paid star is still a man

Zoe Ball voluntarily took a £380,000 pay cut during negotiations to remain as host of the Radio 2 breakfast show for a further two years, meaning she avoids becoming the first woman to top the BBC’s list of highest-paid stars.

Ball’s salary had hit £1.36m for her job presenting the UK’s most popular radio programme, which reaches 8.1 million listeners a week. However, a BBC spokesperson said Ball felt it was inappropriate to earn so much in the middle of a pandemic. They said she volunteered to take a pay cut last year during talks with the broadcaster and signed a new deal to earn a still hefty £980,000.

The presenter has faced a battle to retain listeners after taking over the programme from the previous host, Chris Evans. She had lost a million listeners before the pandemic but no new radio audience figures have been published for more than a year because of coronavirus restrictions on research.

Ball’s decision means Gary Lineker is once again the BBC’s highest-paid star. He had already agreed to take a £390,000 pay cut to £1.36m when he signed a new contract last year to continue presenting Match of the Day.

The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, whose own salary of £525,000 would put him near the top of the list, said his team was pushing to bring down wages: “We want to get more value and are willing to make tough decisions to that extent,” he said.

High-earners in the BBC’s annual report include the News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards, who has a salary of £425,000; Lauren Laverne, who earns £395,000 a year for presenting on BBC 6Music and Desert Island Discs; while Alan Shearer is paid £390,000 for his work as a football pundit.

Others include the Question Time and Antiques Roadshow host, Fiona Bruce, on £405,000, Radio 2’s Steve Wright on £465,000, and Scott Mills on £375,000. Many executives behind the scenes were also highly paid, with the chief content officer, Charlotte Moore, earning £400,000 a year.

However, the list of highest-earners is incomplete. Leading BBC stars who host some of the corporation’s biggest television shows, such as the presenters of Strictly Come Dancing, do not have their salaries published because their programmes are produced by the corporation’s commercial arm. As a result, the published pay list tends to only include big-name radio hosts, sports presenters, plus very high-earning reporters.

Money spent on the BBC’s highest-earning on-screen talent has fallen substantially in recent years after it was forced to reveal the details of the pay packets of everyone earning more than £150,000 a year, creating a wider scandal about gender pay inequality across the corporation. Many big-name male presenters such as Jeremy Vine were pushed to take substantial salary cuts, while others such as Eddie Mair chose to move to commercial stations.

The BBC also spent an average of £66,907 on severance payouts for 1,106 staff who were either sacked or took voluntary redundancy in the last year. Many long-serving BBC correspondents took early redundancy last year, amid a much-delayed newsroom reshuffle, in the belief it could be their last opportunity to take advantage of such generous payouts.

Gary Lineker (right) is again listed as the BBC’s highest-earner, while Alan Shearer (left) earns £390,000 for his work as a BBC football pundit. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Davie, who was appointed last September, has emphasised the need for the broadcaster to reduce the size of its workforce as it faces a challenging negotiation with a hostile government over the amount it can charge for the licence fee over the next five years.

During a press briefing alongside the newly appointed BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, Davie repeatedly emphasised how the corporation had cut 6% of its public service workforce – equivalent to about 1,200 jobs – in the last year, a move that is likely to appeal to the government. Many journalists in the corporation’s news department say it is being pushed to the limits by the reorganisation, as a result of which more staff are working across multiple outlets rather than for a specific television or radio programme.

Davie also said he was proud of the impact of tough new rules on BBC social media accounts, following a stream of criticism from Conservative MPs over supposed anti-Tory bias.

He said: “Our commitment to impartial reporting is rock solid. But we know we need to uphold the highest standards and make the case of impartiality every day in everything we do.”

The BBC’s top 10 highest earning on-air stars in 2020/21:

1. Gary Lineker – £1.36m2. Zoe Ball – £1.13m3. Steve Wright – £465,0004. Huw Edwards – £425,0005. Fiona Bruce – £405,0006. Stephen Nolan – £405,0007. Lauren Laverne – £395,0008. Vanessa Feltz – £390,0009. Alan Shearer – £390,00010. Scott Mills – £375,0000