BBC gender pay row: Martina Navratilova says John McEnroe is paid TEN TIMES more than her
GETTY Navratilova claims a "gender pay gap" between her and John McEnroe for Wimbledon news
The nine-time Wimbledon champion expressed outrage, after seeing McEnroe's salary on the the list of top-paid BBC talent which was published last summer. She claimed the BBC had lied and had falsely assured her that she was paid the "same" as men doing the same line of work. McEnroe's pay falls between £150,000 to £199,999, after his pay packet was revealed in a list of the BBC's best-paid broadcasters last summer. Navratilova, 61, told BBC Panorama she was only paid £15,000 for her commentary at the Wimbledon. Navratilova said she was “not happy” at the situation, she added: “The bottom line is that male voices are valued more than women's voices. "It was a shock because John McEnroe makes at least £150,000... I get about £15,000 for Wimbledon and unless John McEnroe's doing a whole bunch of stuff outside of Wimbledon he's getting at least 10 times as much money". She said that she was told by the cooperation that she was getting a similar salary to her male colleagues, adding: "We were not told the truth, that's for sure....
GETTY Martina Navratilova declared champion at the Wimbledon Ladies Tennis Final in 1978
BBC Sport told the programme, which will be broadcast on Monday: "John and Martina perform different roles in the team, and John's role is of a different scale, scope and time commitment," adding: "They are simply not comparable. John's pay reflects all of this, gender isn't a factor." Panorama added McEnroe, 59, was crowned Wimbledon champion three times with an estimated 30 appearances for the BBC at Wimbledon last year, in contrast to Navratilova's 10 appearances. The Panorama programme explores the gender pay gap at the BBC, amid damaging claims of unequal salaries among its broadcasters. The row comes after former BBC China editor, Carrie Gracie, resigned from her role after 20 years when she found out she was being paid less than her counterpart male foreign editors. She now works for the BBC London and told the Panorama she may leave the BBC over the pay disparity dispute. Gracie said: "I do know that I have sat beside men on TV doing the same job, probably (with) the same experience or I might have been even more experienced, and I know they were earning more than me." After being asked if she would take a case against the BBC with regards to the gender pay gap, Gracie said: "If I find that I was entitled to have been paid at a different rate during the time I was there of course I would." A BBC commissioned review revealed a 6.8 per cent gender pay gap, however there was "no evidence of gender bias in pay decision-making".
The bottom line is that male voices are valued more than women's voices. Martina Navratilova
The BBC's director of news and current affairs, said she does not think the cooperation have acted illegally in regard to equal pay: "That doesn't mean, however there won't be instances and cases where there is inequality and we need to address those." Chris Evans of Radio 2 topped the BBC talent list as the highest paid male, earning more than £2 million, while Claudia Winkleman was the highest female bread-winner, earning between £450,000 and £499,999.
GETTY In 1985, John McEnroe well-known as the "American tennis star" at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships