46 BBC bosses earn more than the Prime Minister
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£834,000 - total pay package for director general Mark Thompson, 2008-09
Gallery of BBC Expenses
The BBC published details of the pay of its 107 most senior managers today, revealing that 46 earn more than the Prime Minister.
The decision to go public about its top office salaries is a sign that the BBC is responding to demands that it be more open.
But visitors to its website may be disappointed to find that while they can learn a great deal about the pay and expenses claims of officials whose names mean little or nothing to the public, there is nothing about the pay packets of the on screen stars such as Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton, Jeremy Paxman, and the rest.
The highest paid of the 107 senior managers listed is the Director General, Mark Thompson, whose basic salary of £664,000 is three and a half times the £194,250 that Gordon Brown is paid. Mr Thompson's total pay packet last year was £834,000.
His expenses claims ranged from £647.50 for a two night stay at The Bellagio, the Las Vegas hotel featured in the George Clooney film Ocean’s Eleven, to 70p that he fed into a parking metre. Mr Thompson claimed for 48 parking metre charges in 58 days from 5 March to 1 May this year.
There was also some surprise today at the discovery that the controller of Radio 1, Andy Parfitt, claimed expenses after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief. He was one of the party who reached the 19,300 foot peak in March, along with Chris Moyles, Fearne Cotton, Gary Barlow and Cheryl Cole. Mr Parfitt, who is on a basic salary of £211,000, claimed £541.83 for 'specialist clothing' and other 'essentials' for the trip, and £26.20 for taxis to pick up his equipment,
A spokesman said: “Andy provided technical support to enable Chris (Moyles) to broadcast from the mountain each day. The specialist clothing was essential kit for the climb, taking into account the conditions that Andy would be facing."
Caroline Thomson, the corporation's chief operating officer, described the publication of the top salaries as "a significant move.” She added: "Today's launch is a direct response to the public, who have indicated that they would like more information about how the BBC is run in a way which marks a step change in openness, simplicity and accountability. We are meeting the spirit as well as the letter of the law."
Ms Thomson's salary is £333,000, and her expenses show that she claimed more than £1,500 for tax rides in one month, and more than £4,000 in three months. A BBC spokesman said Ms Thomson needed to travel extensively as part of her role.
"In London it can be quicker to go by taxi and she can also take calls, which she would not be able to do if she travelled by Tube or bus," he added.
Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt welcomed publication of the figures, but added: "They can't stop here. We must see a full breakdown of what the BBC pays their celebrity talent.”
The newly-released information can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/info/running/bbcstructure/index.shtml.
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Comments
All covered nicely by so-called "entertainment/hospitality"
Every which way we are milked!
PS: they make a lot less than the average footballer, though a lot more than the best school teacher in Britain.
Someone obviously knows they have nothing to be professionally proud of. Those who do pay their own way with what they have earned from their accomplishments.
The pay of what are effectively public servants shouldn't be high: they have job security and will receive a great deal of satisfaction from their work in a creative environment... the need for high salaries is not a factor in working for a public broadcaster. The BBC has awarded its employees high salaries which reflect the disconnexion between these people and those who pay their salaries through a tax.
If the BBC were paid on a voluntary basis, it would loose a huge amount of its revenue, and it could (if everyone took a pay cut) carry on just as before with normal rather than these inflated pay rates for its staff. If employees were dissatisfied, they could leave and do what they want elsewhere. In house production would increase as the outsourced programmes are all outrageously expensive and the BBC wouldn't buy them at the prices now charged.
If the highly paid newscasters, interviewers and entertainers left no one would miss them: there are plenty more fish in the sea quite capable of doing their jobs for a fraction of what these people are paid.
It is obscene that people get the equivalent of the average annual wage for standing in front of a camera reading an autocue in less than a week, if not less than an hour.
It's time we either scrapped the licence fee or halved it with everyone getting the sack and having to re-apply for his/her job at a much much lower salary.
The high salaries of certain sectors of society have widened the divide between rich and poor: three times the average wage is plenty for anyone at the top of the BBC.
The BBC is under increasing pressure from right-wing ideologues. They see it as a bastion of socialism because it's publicly funded from the compulsory licence fee. They also see the demise of the BBC as a desirable way for private companies to make much more money.
Huge battalions of very rich and powerful and frankly appalling people are lined up to destroy the BBC, pick the meat off the bones, and dance on it's grave. And we are in line for a Conservative government which is made up of and financed by these very people.
The BBC is therefore in the last chance saloon and needs all the friends it can get. Therefore the excessively-paid executives and celebrities should think carefully about what their greed is doing to our much-loved public service broadcasting co; not only in terms of draining it's finances but in terms of angering people who are naturally should be, and are, supporters of the BBC .
Mark Thompson is paying himself a ridiculous amount of money, is taking an endless series of morally dubious decisions, and is presiding over comedic drivel, all at taxpayers' expense. He should be sacked and we, the licence fee payers, should have the power to remove him.
These people are at the heart of public service broadcasting but are totally out of touch with reality. Shocking.
Norman form Newport