BBC stars' salaries revealed following row over equal pay

Television presenter Graham Norton. Photo / Supplied

Three women have moved into the BBC's "rich list" of highest paid earners for the first time, one year after the corporation came under fire over its huge gender pay gap.

UK Broadcasters Claudia Winkleman, Zoe Ball and Vanessa Feltz were named in the top ten earners at the UK media giant.

Former soccer star Gary Lineker, who hosts Match of the Day, is still at the top of the list, taking home £1.75 million (NZ$3.31 million). Former breakfast radio host Chris Evans is second on the list, raking in £1.25 million (NZ$2.36 million) despite leaving the corporation in December 2018. Graham Norton is in third place with £610,000 (NZ$1.1 million) a year.

The list is part of the annual report for the public broadcaster and covers the period from April 2018 to March 2019.

It includes all those who earn more than £150,000 (A$280,000) but does not include those who work for BBC Studios, the commercial arm responsible for producing TV dramas. As a result, stars of hit shows like Top Gear, Doctor Who and the Bodyguard are not included in the list.

Last year, the BBC came under enormous criticism when salaries were made public as it revealed huge discrepancies between male and female presenters.

The highest male salary, for BBC radio host Chris Evans, was between £2.2 million and £2.49 million (NZ$4.1 million and $4.7 million). It was more than four times higher than Claudia Winkleman, who earned between £400,000 and £450,000 (NZ$755,000 - $850,000) as the highest paid woman on the list.

Later that month, some of the BBC's most high-profile women called on the corporation to "act now" to end the discrepancy in an open letter to the director general, Lord Hall. Sweeping pay reviews were announced, however the issue blew up again in January 2018 when BBC China editor Carrie Gracie resigned from her post after finding out her male counterparts working in the US and Middle East were paid "at least 50 per cent more."

Later that month, six leading male presenters, Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine, accepted pay cuts to help resolve the issue.

Lord Hall said the total bill for top talent had risen by £10 million (NZ$18 million) but was now a smaller proportion of total costs. What top stars should be paid is a matter of national contention in the UK where the public broadcaster is funded by a TV licence but forced to compete with commercial networks and streaming giants like Amazon and Netflix.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Lord Hall said: "The BBC was rightly criticised for a lack of female representation when we first published details of our highest earning stars two years ago.

"But the reality is that on pay we have come a long way to becoming a fairer organisation since then."