March 29, 2018

News UK reveals gender pay gap of 15.2 per cent rising to 24.8 per cent at The Sun

News UK has revealed it has a mean gender pay gap of 15.2 per cent, which rises to 24.8 per cent at The Sun and The Sun On Sunday.

The Times and The Sunday Times have a lower gender pay gap, with hourly pay on average 14.3 per cent lower for women, and News UK-owned radio station Talksport had a 15.1 per cent gap.

Across News UK Group companies, including the newspapers and TLS, corporate and commercial staff and print sites, 72.3 per cent of the top paid quartile of staff were men, rising to 83.6 per cent at News Group Newspapers (The Sun and The Sun on Sunday).

At Times Newspapers, 73.2 per cent of the top earners were men.

Some 70 per cent of all employees at The Sun were men, compared to 63 per cent at The Times and Talksport.

Overall News UK had a mean bonus gap favouring men of 11 per cent, rising to 49 per cent at Talksport, 41 per cent at The Times and 21.5 per cent at The Sun.

Chief executive Rebekah Brooks said: “I am proud that we have senior women across a variety of key editorial and commercial roles at News UK and half of my executive team is female.

“In technology, our chief technology officer Christina Scott made a concerted effort to improve the percentage of women in her team and has increased the ratio by 6 per cent in the last two years.

“On The Sun’s digital team, we have hired as many women as we have men in the last year. And as we hire into more junior roles, we will have a pool of talent to promote from in future.

“The News Academy has for several years now been making inroads into recruiting young people from diverse backgrounds to get a foot in the door in journalism.

“I have always felt that News UK is a meritocracy and I want people to be promoted on the basis of their ability.

“Equal pay for equal jobs is incredibly important and we are committed to ensuring that men and women from all backgrounds have equal opportunities for promotion and are remunerated fairly.”

The mean gender pay gap breakdown among national news publishers and broadcasters so far is as follows:

Telegraph Media Group – 35 per cent
Economist Group – 32.5 per cent
Channel 4 – 28.6 per cent
The Financial Times – 24.4 per cent
Reuters – 20.23 per cent
ITN – 19.6 per cent (encompassing Channel 4 News, ITV News and Channel 5 News)
Trinity Mirror – 18 per cent (5.8 per cent at Local World, 17.8 per cent at Mirror Group Newspapers and 19.4 per cent at Media Scotland)
Express Newspapers – 17 per cent
News UK – 15.2 per cent (24.8 per cent at The Sun, 14.3 per cent at The Times and 15.1 per cent at Talksport)
Sky – 11.5 per cent (5.2 per cent within broadcasting division)
Guardian News and Media – 11.3 per cent
BBC – 10.7 per cent