Sarah Montague: Presenter reveals £400k equal pay settlement with BBC
Broadcaster apologised for underpaying presenter ‘for so many years’, she says
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Your support makes all the difference.A BBC presenter has agreed a £400,000 settlement with the broadcaster over an equal pay dispute.
Sarah Montague, who used to work on the Today programme with John Humphrys, said she has also received “an apology from the BBC for paying me unequally for so many years".
"When I discovered the disparity in my pay and conditions, I was advised that rectifying it all could run into the millions," she said.
“I chose not to seek such sums from the BBC but I did want some recognition that they had underpaid me.”
She opted for a deal giving her £400,000 subject to tax and an apology after “a long period of stressful negotiation”, she tweeted.
When the BBC revealed a list of its top earners in 2017, Ms Montague found out she was the only Today presenter not earning over £150,000. John Humphrys, on the other hand, was earning at least £600,000.
She wrote in The Sunday Times that she had "long suspected" she was paid less than colleagues but "had no idea of the scale of that difference".
When she did, she felt "incandescent with rage" that her male colleagues were earning more and managers had deemed this acceptable.
Ms Montague, who presents World At One on BBC Radio 4 and the HARDtalk interview on television, spoke out to clarify the details of the settlement made last year following “erroneous reports”.
A BBC spokesperson said: "We are pleased to have resolved this matter with Sarah some time ago.”
The broadcaster recently lost a sex discrimination case against Samira Ahmed, who argued her pay should have been equal to fellow presenter Jeremy Vine, who earned £3,000 per programme compared to her £465.
Carrie Gracie, the BBC's former China editor who resigned after learning her male counterparts had a higher salary, tweeted following Ms Ahmed's win: “I hope your victory gives courage to women everywhere to stand up for the value of their work.”
The court ruled the employer “failed to rebut the presumption of sex discrimination that arose when she proved that her work was like his work”.
The BBC said it was "committed to equality and equal pay" and never believed the disparity between Mr Vine and Ms Ahmed's salary was "determined by their gender".
Additional reporting by Press Association
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