Top Gear’s Chris Evans: I get paid too much at BBC

The BBC employee said cutting pay is not "rocket science"
Pay cut please: Top Gear TV Presenter Chris Evans
Splash News
Emma Powell12 May 2016
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Chris Evans has said he gets paid too much and called on BBC bosses to cut his wage.

The Top Gear presenter said he has a job people “would kill for” and said it makes sense to cut pay.

“It’s a well-known fact that people who do what I do for a living compared to the real world get paid too much money,” he told the BBC.

“We’ve got jobs that people would kill for, we get to do things that people would pay to do if they could afford it, and sometimes those things aren’t available to buy.”

He continued: “Most of us work part time anyway so just pay us less. That’s what I would do. It’s not rocket science.”

Evans’ comments come as the government prepares to publish its White Paper on the future of the corporation.

It was reported that all BBC broadcasters and bosses earning more than £450,000, the salary of the corporation’s director general, could be forced to disclose their pay.

Top Gear 2016: First Look

1/12

The BBC Radio 2 presenter, Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker and chat show host Graham Norton could be affected.

Evans is currently preparing for his Top Gear debut.

The revamped show is set to air on May 29 with Evans and Matt LeBlanc at the helm.

They will be joined by Eddie Jordan, Sabine Schmitz​, Chris Harris, journalist Rory Reid and show regular The Stig.

Follow @StandardShowbiz for more entertainment news.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in