Chris Evans tops BBC pay list with earnings of more than £2m

Chris Evans, the one-series-Top-Gear-wonder, tops the list of BBC earning talent with his closest rival, Gary Lineker, earning £1.75m- 1.8m for his role on Match of The Day and other BBC Sport programmes.

Woman's Hour presenter Jane Garvey blasted at "extraordinarily male and entirely pale and big salaries", Radio 2, whose presenter Jeremy Vine was shown by the list to be the fourth highest-paid BBC employee, on £700,000-£749,999.

Behind Winkleman, the second-highest paid female star was One Show presenter Alex Jones, who earned between £400,000 ($521,432) and £449,999 ($586,609), less than her co-presenter Matt Baker, who earned between £450,000 ($586,610) and £499,999 ($651,805) for the same job. In the case of Graham Norton, though he is handsomely rewarded (earning £850k-£899k), it is unclear whether his figure also accounts for the fact that he owns the production company which makes his chat show.

The BBC´s political editor Laura Kuenssberg is on £200,000 to £249,000, below news presenter George Alagiah (£250,000-£299,000) and Radio 4´s PM host Eddie Mair (£300,000 - £349,000).

This is the first time the pay of its high-paying stars has been revealed.

BBC Director General Tony Hall has acknowledged there is "more to do" concerning gender and diversity pay gaps.

Just after the BBC's data was released, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) dropped the latest instalment of a series of interactive data visualisations, this time focusing on the gender pay gap in Britain. As part of the most recent Charter Renewal - the legal process by which the BBC is allowed by the government to continue to exist - it has been forced to reveal the names of people who have earned more than £150,000 from the corporation in the last financial year.

Sports summarisers earn more per minute of airtime than any other BBC star. The amount we pay the very highest earners has dropped by 40 per cent across the same period.

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"People are going to say that's a problem and ask if there is an inherent sexism issue".

Elsewhere, Casualty star Derek Thompson was found to be the highest-paid actor at the BBC earning between £350k and £349k, with fellow Casualty and Holby City star Amanda Mealing the highest-paid female actress at £250k - £299k.

He acknowledged, however, there is "more to do".

The details show two-thirds of those on top wages are men.

"We have set the most stretching targets in the industry for on-air diversity and we've made progress, but we recognize that there is more to do and we are pushing further and faster than any other broadcaster", he said. "That's why we always try to pay people at a discount to the market".

"It's an important thing that licence fee payers know where their money is going".

"It will make it enormously hard for them to remain competitive and could mean they cannot retain talent".