BBC gender pay gap

The release of the BBC’s list of top-paid talent has quite unexpectedly focused on the difference between men’s pay and women’s pay.

But it’s hard to look at a list and see whether women are doing worse than men, or whether there are fewer women on the list. Clearly either of these is a bad show, but a bit of data viz should be able to make the picture clearer.

In the pictures below, men and women are ranked from most well-paid at the top, to least well-paid at the bottom. On the right, all men and women are ranked together

In a perfectly fair distribution the lines would all be flat. Any downward-sloping lines suggest that someone is doing worse overall than their position within their gender would suggest.

Claudia Winkleman is the best-paid woman at the BBC but only the 8th best-paid person overall. And as for the hardest-working person on TV, Laura Kuenssberg, she’s the 13th best-paid woman, but is outbid by Jools Holland, the 36th best-paid man.

Talk about a pay Squeeze.