The Chase star Anne Hegerty has re-ignited the debate over equal pay after revealing she believes working mothers should be paid less than their male counterparts.
The professional quizzer, who goes by the nickname “The Governess” on the hit game show, spoke to The Sun about the pay gap, saying she doesn’t mind if men are paid more than women for the same work.
“It never bothers me, it’s to do with whether or not you have kids and whether you take time off to look after them,” she said.
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Her opinion seemed to be based largely on the assumption that women are more likely to work part time than men – due to the fact that it is still common for mothers to be the primary care-giver in a family with children.
She claimed that gender-based pay gaps are the result of women being on pro-rata salaries.
“You’re not doing the same job if you’re not putting in the same hours. Think of the times you ring an office and you’re told, ‘She only works Thursday, Tuesday and Wednesday.’
“I think, ‘Well I’m sure she’s working really hard the other two days, but she’s not working at this job the other two days.’
“So I rather hope she is only getting two or three fifths of what the men get, because she isn’t putting in the hours.”
Anne did not clarify what she thought of women who do work full-time earning less than men who perform the same job.
She also addressed life as a childless woman, claiming while there was a time she regretted not having children, she now feels that she’s “dodged a bullet”.
“There seems to be so many problems involved with having a child, it seems to be fraught,” she said. “They’re expensive, they add chaos to your life, you don’t miss what you haven’t had and I just think I love the peace and quiet of my life.”
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The pay gap debate stepped up a notch last year, when the BBC published a list of the top salaries paid to its staff – showing a vast discrepancy between men and women.
The BBC’s top earner was revealed to be Chris Evans, on a salary of £2.2million, while the highest paid woman was Claudia Winkleman, with a salary between £450,000 and £500,000.