The chief executive of ITV took a 20% pay cut to her basic salary for seven months during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to documents.
Dame Carolyn McCall’s voluntary decision emerged as the broadcaster revealed the gender pay gap at the organisation grew during 2020 although its ethnic diversity pay gap shrank.
The boss agreed to a salary reduction taking her basic pay from £923,000 to £833,000 for a year, the broadcaster’s annual report showed.
Her total pay packet for 2020 was £1.1 million – down from £3.1 million in 2019 – after including pension contributions, share awards and benefits, which were also reduced. No bonus was paid.
Finance chief Chris Kennedy also agreed to a pay cut for seven months during the height of the first wave – missing out on £88,000. He still took home £665,000 for the year.
The latest details came as the company also published its Gender Pay Gap report, showing the median pay gap between its male and female employees rose to 9.8% – up from 8.7% a year earlier.
Bosses pointed out that the mean gender pay gap fell from 13.2% in 2019 to 12.1% in 2020.
The gender balance at ITV is 53.2% women and 46.8% men and the gap exists because more men work in the most senior or highly paid roles, the company said.
It added: “However, the number of women in the upper quartile pay band has increased from 42.0% in 2017 to 45.1% in 2020.
“In the upper middle pay band, the number of women has also increased from 47.6% in 2017 to 51.1% in 2020.”
ITV’s ethnicity pay gap reduced significantly, with the median gap between white employees and those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds shrinking from 5.1% in 2019 to 0.1% in 2020. On the mean average, it was down from 6.7% to 1.7%.
The company said: “There continues to be a slightly higher proportion of employees from BAME backgrounds in the lower quartile pay band, reflecting the greater diversity of participants in our entry level schemes and also in entry level roles, as we actively aim to open up these opportunities to individuals who may not have previously considered ITV as a potential employer.”
