BBC slashes its senior management wage bill by £2.1m
The BBC has slashed the pay of its senior management team - including director general Mark Thompson - by £2.1m (43%) as it is pressurised into cutting its executive wage bill.
The new figures are revealed in a report by Jason Deans in The Guardian drawing on the BBC annual report for the 12 months to end-March which will be published today (Tuesday).
The annual report will show that Thompson and his executive board colleagues saw their total pay reduced from £4.8m the previous year.
If the one month's salary each director gave up last year is also taken into account, the total wage bill was £2.55m.
According to The Guardian, the number of executive directors fell from 10 to seven, and included the departures of deputy director general Mark Byford who was paid £488,000 and marketing director Sharon Baylay who was paid £310,000.
Byford was replaced by on the executive board by BBC News director Helen Boaden, who makes £354,000 a year, while Baylay was not replaced on the board.
As previously reported however, the redundancy payments for both Byford and Baylay cost £1.3 million.
The Guardian also reports that joining the executive board were new BBC Vision director George Entwistle (pay: £285,000) - replacing Jana Bennett (£517,000), and director of digital media Ralph Rivera (£308,000) who took over from former future media and technology director Erik Huggers (£407,000).
Thompson's pay was reduced from £671,000 to £615,000 last year, taking into account the one month's salary he gave up.
The pay bill for the five non-executive members of the BBC board remained around the £300,000 mark.
The fall in wages is part of the BBC's cost cutting plan as a result of the freeze of the licence fee, as well as mounting criticism from politicians and unions.
The annual report will show that the BBC has reduced the number of senior managers by 16.6%, from 643 to 537, and their total pay by 21.1%, or £16.6m.
The corporation claims it is on track to reduce its senior management numbers by 20% to 510 – and cut its executive wage bill by £20m (25%) – by the end of the current financial year.