REUTERS/Russell Boyce
During a CNN International meeting, Managing Director Tony Maddox said he was “shocked and disappointed” by data on the London-based broadcaster’s gender-pay gap, according to a recording obtained by BuzzFeed News. “To be absolutely candid with you, this survey has prompted us to do something we weren’t doing,” Maddox said. “...you don’t realize until it’s portrayed in this stark kind of way that you need to take a look at it. We did this because we were instructed to do it. Now we’re responding to it.” The U.K. government recently forced British media companies to disclose their pay data by gender. The CNN International report revealed there was a “23.5 percent median gap in favor of men,” BuzzFeed reports. At one point in the meeting, an executive insisted that the company did not have an “equal pay” problem, and Maddox said “most of the salaries were set by women.” He and other executives blamed the salary gap on the fact that there are “more male camera operators and engineers” at the company.