ITV set to give ‘serious pay rises’ to Coronation Street and Emmerdale stars

ITV’s soap stars are reportedly in for a pay rise, due to ‘demands from the taxman’.

According to reports, actors on Coronation Street and Emmerdale are paid as freelancers, but HMRC are stipulating that they be made ‘staff’.

As a result, ITV have not been paying the stars’ national insurance or holiday pay, as writes The Sun.

A source said: ‘When this kicks in, everyone impacted is going to be pushing for the best possible deal to guarantee themselves a big salary, which might lead to serious pay rises.’

This allegedly follows a similar situation at the BBC with their actors.

It’s thought that, should ITV not adopt this structure, they won’t be allowed to hold on to cast members as stringently as they’d like.

Currently, Corrie and Emmerdale stars are said to be unable to spread their wings and work on other projects under their contracts.

The new enforcement suggest that ITV will have to allow them to do this, unless they make them ‘staff’.

MailOnline has approached ITV for comment.

It was reported in March that the chief executive of ITV took a 20 per cent pay cut to her basic salary for seven months during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to documents.

Dame Carolyn McCall’s voluntary decision emerged as the broadcaster revealed the gender pay gap at the organisation grew during 2020 – although its ethnic diversity pay gap shrank.

The boss agreed to a salary reduction taking her basic pay from £923,000 to £833,000 for a year, the broadcaster’s annual report showed.

Her total pay packet for 2020 was £1.1million – down from £3.1million in 2019 – after including pension contributions, share awards and benefits, which were also reduced. No bonus was paid.

Finance chief Chris Kennedy also agreed to a pay cut for seven months during the height of the first wave – missing out on £88,000. He still took home £665,000 for the year.

The latest details came as the company also published its Gender Pay Gap report, showing the median pay gap between its male and female employees rose to 9.8 per cent – up from 8.7 per cent a year earlier.

Bosses pointed out that the mean gender pay gap fell from 13.2 per cent in 2019 to 12.1 per cent in 2020.

The gender balance at ITV is 53.2 per cent women and 46.8 per cent men and the gap exists because more men work in the most senior or highly paid roles, the company said.

It added: ‘However, the number of women in the upper quartile pay band has increased from 42.0 per cent in 2017 to 45.1 per cent in 2020.

‘In the upper middle pay band, the number of women has also increased from 47.6 per cent in 2017 to 51.1 per cent in 2020.’

ITV’s ethnicity pay gap reduced significantly, with the median gap between white employees and those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds shrinking from 5.1 per cent in 2019 to 0.1 per cent in 2020. 

On the mean average, it was down from 6.7 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

The company said: ‘There continues to be a slightly higher proportion of employees from BAME backgrounds in the lower quartile pay band, reflecting the greater diversity of participants in our entry level schemes and also in entry level roles, as we actively aim to open up these opportunities to individuals who may not have previously considered ITV as a potential employer.’