Abi Wilkinson, freelance journalist, Opinion, London, 19 July 2017<\/p>\n
This BBC report should be used to spark a sincere debate about regional and economic inequality: billionaires buy up homes while others sleep in the streets.<\/p>\n
A<\/span><\/span>s a leftwinger, I was thrilled to discover this morning that people are very angry about income inequality. Even the normally right-leaning Daily Mail and Sun have published stories<\/a> \u2013 whipping up outrage about an elite class earning more than five times the average UK salary of \u00a327,600<\/a>.<\/p>\n The focus is on workers at the BBC, which has published a report today on some of its employees\u2019 salaries<\/a>, but presumably the main points can be generalised: it\u2019s simply not fair that a small minority of people earn so much more than the rest of us. Arguments about preventing talent being poached by competitors don\u2019t cut it. Nobody is worth these sorts of amounts. There should be less of a gap between the highest and lowest earners within an organisation \u2013 and between the rich and poor more generally.<\/p>\n Or perhaps I\u2019ve misunderstood. Both the Sun and the Daily Mail, you see, have some extremely highly paid employees themselves. Both Rupert Murdoch and chief executive Robert Thompson receive several million each year from News Corp, and Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre took home \u00a31.5m in 2016<\/a>. Though full data isn\u2019t available, it\u2019s estimated that top-paid columnists at those papers are paid salaries roughly in line with those of high-earning BBC talent. In media, as in most all other industries, gross income inequality is the norm.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one reason the BBC is receiving all of this attention: it\u2019s part of the public sector. This means the government has the power to dictate what information is made public. Forcing the BBC<\/a> to reveal the names of employees earning over \u00a3150,000 has been justified on the grounds it makes the broadcaster \u201cmore open and transparent about its operations while making sure the public broadcaster continues to thrive in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n In the context of sustained attacks on the public sector by the Conservative government, though, it\u2019s hard not to feel a little cynical. With the public sector pay cap<\/a> eroding the real incomes of prison officers, paramedics and nurses by more than \u00a33,000 annually<\/a>\u2013 forcing some to borrow money and use food banks just to survive \u2013 it perhaps helps to identify an alternative scapegoat. Highly paid TV stars who have spoken out about the consequences of government policy \u2013 such as Gary Lineker<\/a>, who is earning up to \u00a31.8m from the BBC, the report says \u2013 will no doubt be dismissed as hypocrites.<\/p>\n The truth is we absolutely should be angry about the gross economic inequality in our country. Basic moral reasoning tells us it\u2019s perverse that billionaire investors buy up homes and leave them empty, while other people sleep in the streets. That the wealth of the 1% continues to accumulate, while minimum wage employees work gruelling hours on insecure contracts and still struggle to make rent. That the UK\u2019s per capita GDP is among the highest in the world, but children are going to school hungry and with holes in their shoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Taking a broader view, the salaries of TV stars like Graham Norton and Fiona Bruce should really be the least of our worries. The world\u2019s eight richest men own as much wealth as half the world\u2019s population<\/a>. In the UK, billionaires buy up media outlets and donate to political parties (most commonly, the Conservatives) in an attempt to influence our democracy.<\/p>\n Rupert Murdoch (net worth: \u00a39.3bn) doesn\u2019t only want you to be angry at BBC performers being paid more than \u00a3150,000 per year. His newspapers frequently attack unemployed benefit claimants as a drain on the working population, while simultaneously suggesting that migrant workers are to blame for Brits being unable to find jobs. The more that ordinary people can be encouraged to blame each other for their hardship, the less likely it is that elites will be challenged.<\/p>\n Maybe, though, this BBC report could be used to spark a more sincere debate about inequality. Another piece of research released today is likely to receive less attention, but also deserves consideration in this context. The TUC has found a 25% salary gap between the richest and poorest regions of the UK<\/a>, with major knock-on effects for local economies. People living in places like the West Midlands, Wales and the north-west are far less likely to be able to find well-paid work than those in London and the south-east.<\/p>\n We need to stop viewing extreme income equality as unavoidable, and realise that our economy is something we have significant power to shape. If you have thoughts on BBC employees\u2019 remuneration, take a step back and broaden that out. What would<\/em> a fair society look like?<\/p>\n