Top Gear host admits he's paid 'too much' as salaries made public

Gary Lineker, Chris Evans and Graham Norton. Photo / Getty Images, NZH, Supplied

The new host of Top Gear has admitted he is paid "too much money" as the BBC announces it will publish the salaries of its top stars.

Chris Evans, who also hosts the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, is reportedly paid $4.2 million a year. But he says he should be paid less.

"People who do what I do for a living compared to people in the real world get paid too much money."

He added: "We've got jobs that people would pay to do - if they could afford it - and sometimes those things aren't even available to buy. Most of us work part-time anyway, so just pay us less."

BBC stars who earn more than $950,000 - the salary of the director general - will have details of their wages made public, it was announced yesterday.

It is thought that nine stars, including 34-year-old Evans, are currently paid more than this figure, with Eurovision host Graham Norton, Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and news anchor Fiona Bruce all thought to qualify.

In recent weeks it had been suggested that the public would soon learn the salaries of anyone earning more than $317,000 - which would include around 100 stars.

However, the white paper stated that the new Charter will only "require the BBC to go further regarding the transparency of what it pays its talent and publish the names of all of its employees and its freelancers who earn above $950,000 (which is the current Director-General's salary) in broad bands agreed with the BBC".

The BBC currently publishes the pay of all of its senior management staff who are earning more than $317,000, as part of a bid to be transparent about salaries.

The wage bill for BBC television presenters earning more than $2.1 million went up by 22 per cent in 2014, while spending and staff numbers both rose despite years of cost-cutting at the corporation.