Good Moaning Britain
If breakfast presenters earn too much, why bother paying anyone a high salary?The Villain doesn’t have much time to watch TV – especially in the morning. Once I’ve grumbled at the sunrise, kicked the cat and devoured a full English, there’s barely enough time to make it into the office, let alone get stuck on the sofa watching early-morning waffle.
So, I was a bit confused yesterday when I read a report on how viewers of breakfast TV are ‘put off’ by the high salaries paid to its presenters. Apparently, as the nation holds its breath (it says here) for the 21st century relaunch of ‘Good Morning Britain’, there’s a warning that the likes of Susanna Reid (who’s been poached from the BBC) are receiving salaries that are a bit rich for the average viewer’s tastes.
The report is based on comments by Nick Owen, who some of you might remember from the first iteration of ‘Good Morning Britain’ back in the 80s. Of course, Owen’s comments are based on his objective view of public opinion, and not in any way influenced by bitterness at never getting the kind of payday being chucked at Susanna Reid.
Now, this is all news to me. Even if I had time for breakfast TV, it wouldn’t be the presenters’ salaries that would stop me from watching it. No, that would be down to the fact that it’s rubbish. I’d also bet that most viewers are as ignorant as I am of the salaries of the people on their screens in the morning.
But the debate did get me thinking. What if viewers really are put off because they know the presenters are being paid too much? And what if this extends to consumers of other products – and for that matter, what does it mean when companies like mine are trying to recruit people? Is high pay an unpalatable proposition?
Presumably this discussion only relates to people higher up the food chain. In the case of breakfast TV, you can bet there’s a sizeable gap between what Susanna Reid is paid and what the camera operators are picking up.
It’s a coffee-and-croissants version of the executive pay argument.
Has the tide of public opinion fully turned against high pay at the top of the corporate ladder? If so, who will blink first – I haven’t seen many examples of companies bowing to this sort of pressure.
And will it ever be feasible to slash the pay offered to high performers? As well as helping to reward their work and attract people from elsewhere, isn’t it an aspirational carrot to dangle for the people lower down the chain, to give them something to work towards? No high pay means no inclination to strive for improvement, surely?
Whatever the truth might be, it’s good to know I’m doing the right thing by paying all of my employees a barely liveable wage, regardless of where they are in the company hierarchy.
As well as keeping them hungry (literally in most cases), it ensures I won’t suffer the same fate as the folks over at ITV, whose generosity to their staff is causing their audience to reach for the remote.
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