Female BBC Editor Just Shamed Broadcaster Over Pay

Carrie Gracie leaves her high-profile post in China in protest of wage gap
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 8, 2018 7:35 AM CST
Female BBC Editor Calls Out Network Over Women's Pay
BBC's China editor Carrie Gracie.   (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)

The BBC's China editor has resigned her position in Beijing in protest over what she called a failure to sufficiently address a gap in compensation between men and women at the public broadcaster. Carrie Gracie said she would stay with the BBC and "return to my former post in the TV newsroom where I expect to be paid equally," per the AP. Gracie's move is the latest aftershock from the BBC's forced publication last year of pay levels for its top earners that showed two-thirds of those in the top bracket were men. Presenting the corporation's flagship Today program on Monday alongside John Humphrys, the BBC's highest-paid news broadcaster, Gracie said the support she'd received for her decision had been "very moving" and showed the degree of frustration among many over the issue of equal pay.

"I think the scale of feeling, not just among BBC women but also just more widely across the country and also internationally, the support that I've had in the last few hours over this, I think it does speak to the depth of hunger for an equal, fair and transparent pay system," she said. A 30-year veteran of the BBC who speaks fluent Chinese, Gracie said in a statement on her website addressed to BBC viewers that she could no longer perform her job at a high level while battling with bosses over pay equality. Gracie said she learned that two of the BBC's four international editors—both men—made at least 50% more than their two female counterparts. She said she was not seeking more money for herself, but only demanding that the BBC observe British law requiring equal pay for equal work.

(More equal pay stories.)

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