Channel 4’s Chief Executive, Alex Mahon today announced the organisation’s 2018 Gender Pay Gap – during Channel 4’s 2017 Annual Report session with the DCMS Select Committee.

It shows that Channel 4 has reduced its mean Gender Pay Gap from 28.6% in 2017 to 22.7% in 2018 – a reduction of 21 percent or 5.9 percentage points. The mean Bonus Gap also reduced from 47.6% in 2017 to 39.4% in 2018.

This was driven particularly by an increase in the number of women employed in senior positions, with the proportion of women in the upper quartile of Channel 4 rising from 44.6% in 2017 to 47.6% in 2018.

The Gender Pay Gap sets out the difference in average hourly pay between men and women across the organisation. The main driver of the Gender Pay Gap at Channel 4 is the imbalance of men at women at different levels of the organisation – with more men in higher-paid roles and more women in lower-paid roles.

The reduction in the Gender Pay Gap in 2018 follows a strategy set out by Alex Mahon to boost the progression of women at senior levels at Channel 4 – with a new target of 50:50 gender balance amongst the top 100 earners by 2023. The strategy published the 2017 Gender Pay Report (opens in a new window) has a major focus on the career progression of women at Channel 4, including a new Women’s Development Programme, Rise, which launches this autumn across the organisation.

Alex Mahon said: “I made clear earlier this year that the size of Channel 4’s Gender Pay Gap was unacceptable – especially for an organisation like ours which champions diversity and inclusion. I’m pleased that our focus on the progression of women to senior levels of the organisation has already had an impact, but there remains much more for us to do and I’m confident we’ll see the gap get smaller still in the coming years.”

A fully audited Channel 4 Gender Pay Report will be published in the coming weeks.