British Broadcaster Channel 4 Reduces Gender Pay Gap By 21%

Channel 4 has reduced its gender pay gap – becoming one of the first British media companies to close the gap between what men and women earn.

The British broadcaster has reduced its mean gender pay gap from 28.6% in 2017 to 22.7% in 2018 – a reduction of 21%. Its median pay gap has also fallen from 24.2% to 22.3%. In terms of bonuses, its mean gap fell from 47.6% to 39.4%, while its median gap fell from 28.7% to 25%.

The figures were revealed by CEO Alex Mahon as part of Channel 4’s 2017 Annual Report session with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. It comes after Mahon put in place a strategy to boost the progression of women at senior levels at Channel 4 with a target of 50:50 gender balance amongst the top 100 earners by 2023.

Former Shine Group boss Mahon said that this was driven by an increase in the number of women employed in senior positions. It comes after C4 was dwarfed by its rivals last year; women made 2.85% more than men at Viacom-owned Channel 5, while ITV had a mean gap of 16.4%, Sky was at 11.5% and the BBC had a gap of 10.7%.

Mahon said: “I made clear earlier this year that the size of Channel 4’s Gender Pay Gap was unacceptable – especially for an organisation like ours which champions diversity and inclusion. I’m pleased that our focus on the progression of women to senior levels of the organisation has already had an impact, but there remains much more for us to do and I’m confident we’ll see the gap get smaller still in the coming years.”

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