The extent of pay cuts taken by six of the highest BBC earners has been revealed in the corporation’s annual report.

In 2018, the BBC announced that John Humphrys, Jeremy Vine, Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, Nick Robinson and Jon Sopel had all accepted pay cuts.

The move came in the wake of the scandal following Carrie Gracie’s resignation as China editor in protest about the disparities between male and female pay. 

BBC Radio 4 Today programme host Robinson is now earning £290,000 and £294,999. In 2016/17, he was on between £250,000 to £299,999, but the BBC explained some Today presenters carry out additional work for parts of the corporation.

A spokesman for the BBC explained the figure disclosed for him last year was for the Today programme and around 40 episodes of his Political Thinking podcast.

This year as well as his main role on Today, he presented 15 more editions of the podcast, as well as working on a number of documentaries and specials. He also presented an edition of the Andrew Marr Show.

The BBC’s North America editor Sopel, whose salary was famously compared with Gracie’s given their similar roles and who hit the headlines for appearing to make light of the scandal in an off-air chat with Humphrys, was earning £200,000 to £249,999. The report states he is now on between £240,000 and £244,999. 

A BBC spokesman said the figures for 2018/19 don’t show the full effect of the  pay cut, and there will be further reductions over the next year in line with the agreement.

The other four mentioned took significant pay cuts. Humphrys has had his pay cut by half in the last three years. He was paid between £600,000 and £649,999 in 2016/17. This dropped to £400,000-£409,999 in 2017/18. He now earns between £290,000 and £294,999.

Jeremy Vine has also taken a similarly large pay cut, now also earning between £290,000 and £294,999. In 2016/17, he earned £700,000-£749,999.

Lead BBC news presenter Edwards was earning between 550,000 and 599,999 and now earns between £490,000 and £494,999. 

Campbell, who presents the breakfast show on 5Live, now earns between £340,000 and £345,999 but previously was in the £400,000 to £449,999 bracket. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the BBC defended the salary of Gary Lineker, who topped its list of highest-earning stars for the second year in a row.

Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, said Linekar’s salary of between £1,750,000 and £1,754,999 was value for money.

“Every time contracts come up, we look at them, we negotiate hard with people,” he said. “But Gary does an excellent job. We have 2% of sport hours and just under 40% of the audiences for sport in this country. A huge amount of that is to do with our sports team.”

He added that a lot of the salary was also to do with Match Of The Day and Linekar in particular. 

Other men also saw a reduction in wages. Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw is down around £90,000 and Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright has seen a cut of approximately £85,000.

Other radio broadcasters to see a drop in salary include Stephen Nolan (down around £75,000), Mark Radcliffe (£35,000), Ken Bruce (£20,000) and Shaun Keaveny (£10,000).

BBC presenter Andrew Marr has seen his salary reduced by roughly £10,000.

A handful of men have seen salary increases, however.

TV and radio presenter Jason Mohammad has seen a rise of around £95,000, and BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker has had an increase of roughly £60,000.

Justin Webb, another presenter of the Today programme, has seen an increase of £85,000.

Radio 1 breakfast show host Greg James is up around £55,000, while football pundit Alan Shearer has seen a rise of £30,000.

A number of women saw their salaries increase and for the first time, three women appeared in the top 10 highest earners list. 

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “While the position of women has improved in the highest earners still only 5 of the top 20 are women and BME stars are still under-represented.

“They should value their male and female talent equally. Can we be confident that they are doing that? We need to see the outcome of the EHRC investigation into unequal pay at the BBC. Any pay discrimination must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“The BBC also need to ensure that women at every level of the organisation are being paid equally with men for doing work of equal value.”