Female BBC employees around the world are using Equal Pay Day to demand that bosses end the gender pay gap, months after the broadcaster revealed just a third of its top earners are women.
Presenters, reporters and editors in locations as far-flung as Cairo and the Syrian border took to social media in solidarity against the pay gap, and called on male colleagues to support the cause.
Radio 4 Today presenters Sarah Montague and Mishal Husain were among those who posted photos of themselves wearing equality T-shirts, with Montague adding the hashtag ”#bbcwomen”.
When the BBC published a list of its top earners in July, it was forced to reveal that its highest-paid male presenters collectively pocketed almost four times the total amount of the top four female presenters.
A serious pay disparity was also exposed on the Today programme.
While the document showed that John Humphrys earned between £600,000 and £649,999 in the year up to April 2017, Husain took home between £200,000 and £249,999 and Montague earned less than £150,000.
It was announced last week that Montague would be leaving the Today programme after 17 years fronting the show, with many suggesting that the row over pay was behind her move.
Speaking to the Radio Times about the issue in October, Montague said the disparity in pay was “professionally damaging”.
“There is an underlying pay gap that there should not be. Why should somebody be paid less for doing the same work?,” she told the magazine.
“The BBC should not be doing things unfairly. We sit in that studio and challenge people over being unfair, so the BBC, of all places, should be fair.”
A survey by the National Union of Journalists released on Equality Pay Day - which marks the point in the year at which female employees “start working for free” - found that 8 out of 10 women at the BBC believe they are paid less than their male counterparts.
Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey and Radio 5 Live host Emma Barnett added their voices to the movement:
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