Lisa Wilkinson was standing up for her right for equal pay but it seems her stellar salary package is ticking off her new colleagues.
Karl Stefanovic’s former Today co-host is joining The Project’s newsdesk in 2018 with a rumoured $2.3 million contract.
But according to the Daily Telegraph’s Confidential, Channel Ten’s sweetheart Carrie Bickmore is less than pleased that she’ll be sharing her panel – for significantly less money.
On Tuesday night’s edition of The Project, Carrie and the team expressed their great admiration and respect for the veteran journalist.
“Nine’s loss is our gain here at Network Ten,” Carrie said of the surprise move.
“An incredible woman — smart, funny, down to earth. We couldn’t be more excited.”
On Instagram, the long-standing Project star penned”,”All class Lisa! Congrats on an incredible stint at Today babe. Hope you enjoyed your sleep in and can’t wait to see your beaming face on @theprojecttv soon,” before adding the hashtags “#smart #funny #genuine”.
But behind the scenes Confidential have revealed the 36-year-old, who has worked on the show for eight years, is “pissed off at Lisa being shipped in to sit alongside her.”
The publication continued, “At the centre of her scorn must surely be her comparably paltry pay packet of a rumoured $500,000, some four times less than Wilkinson’s much-hyped deal.”
Carrie resigned with Ten, who are now owned by American giant CBS, just a few weeks ago – meaning it is unlikely she can make a move to the Nine network.
For fans concerned that Lisa may pip Carrie off the top spot on The Project, a Ten spokesperson explained, “Lisa will join the hosting team of The Project. Her role at Ten will include hosting The Sunday Project.”
“She is NOT replacing Carrie, Waleed or Pete. To suggest she is would be total nonsense.”
Meanwhile, Karl Stefanovic may have wished his former colleague all the best – but his peers are now calling him out for not doing more to achieve pay parity for Lisa.
Radio personality Dave Hughes spoke about how he took a pay cut for the sake of equality with his co-host Kate Langbroek.
In March, the comedian was blind-sided when he learned that he and Kate we’re not paid the same.
“I had no idea what we get paid,” he said at the time.
Adding: “Now I feel terrible”.
Hughsie has close ties to The Project, having been one of the show’s original hosts alongside Carrie Bickmore and Charlie Pickering.
“We’ve never discussed money over our journey together,” Dave admitted.
Kate has since shared, “When we go to our new job, we get pay parity.”
“And we’re on parity now.”
With Dave adding, “And I couldn’t be happier, obviously. You deserve it”.
Sources close to the pair have since revealed that for the duo to be paid the same, Dave took a pay cut.
In light of Lisa’s shock departure, Kate urged the men of Australia to help our quest for equality.
“If you’re going to have a working partnership with someone, if you really care about women not being paid the same, men have to stand up and make it happen,” she said.
“Because men are the ones who are drawing up the pay packets, generally.”
Hughsie added, “And sometimes that might mean men might get paid less than what they might have got to make sure that what’s fair is fair.”
