BBC Pay Figures Show Ethnic Pay Gaps Across Most Salary Grades

By Staff, Agencies

White employees at the BBC earn less than their ethnic minority colleagues in six of the broadcaster’s seven salary grades, according to figures published in its 2025/26 annual report, raising questions over the corporation’s pay structure and efforts to promote ethnic minority staff.

The BBC’s latest pay gap report, highlighted by The Telegraph, shows that Black, Asian, mixed-race and other ethnic minority employees earn 13.2% more in median hourly pay than white colleagues in the lowest salary band. Among the BBC’s most senior executives, ethnic minority employees earn 5.3% more.

White employees earned more in only one salary category, where their median hourly pay was 0.6% higher.

Across the BBC as a whole, however, white employees still earned 0.7% more in median hourly pay, largely because they occupy a greater proportion of the corporation’s highest-paid positions.

The figures have drawn attention to the BBC’s initiatives aimed at increasing ethnic minority representation.

The broadcaster operates mentoring and career development programs designed to help Black, Asian and other minority employees advance professionally.

The BBC has set a target for ethnic minorities to account for 20% of both its overall workforce and senior leadership.

The corporation maintains that these are targets rather than quotas and says they do not influence individual pay decisions.

Former UK Culture Secretary John Whittingdale questioned the BBC’s approach, telling The Telegraph that employees “ought to be paid entirely on the basis of the value and merit they contribute.” He said the BBC should apply the principle of fair pay regardless of race, sexuality or gender.

The broadcaster has previously faced disputes over unequal pay. In 2020, journalist Samira Ahmed won an employment tribunal case after judges found she had been paid less than male presenter Jeremy Vine for equivalent work.

In 2024, four female BBC presenters accused the corporation of sex and age discrimination, while the BBC disclosed six internal equal pay cases in November 2025.

The BBC has rejected suggestions that the latest figures demonstrate unequal treatment, saying it remains “committed to fair and equal pay for all.”