Yumi Stynes will never forget the day she opened the pay slip of one of her TV co-stars – and discovered the man involved was apparently earning substantially more than her for doing exactly the same job.
SEE A PREVIEW OF YUMI’S DOCO IS AUSTRALIA SEXIST? BELOW
Speaking on WHO’s TV podcast, Binge List this week, the former Channel [V] and The Circle host revealed that the incident left her devastated, and questioning the way the media industry treats women.
‘Sometimes you could be thinking, is this all in my head?’ she told Binge List’s Clare Ridgen of her concerns about gender discrimination. ‘But other times it’s quite clear – like for instance I was given, by accident, my colleague’s pay packet.
‘It was addressed to me, so I opened it and then saw what he was getting paid, and I was doing the exact same work and he was getting paid a lot more.’
When asked about whether the incident took place during her run on Channel [V], Yumi confirmed that was the case. Further pressed on whether the man was Osher Gunsbereg, Yumi said no, adding of the individual’s identity: ‘I’d rather not say – but it wasn’t him.’
Yumi, who was on Binge List to discuss upcoming documentary, Is Australia Sexist? (SBS, December 4), says that awkward moment stung for a number of reasons.
‘It was really like a slap because I had been working my arse off to do a good job and to really try and be excellent, and time and time again you’d get told, “Oh you’re doing this job because of the way you look, or they’re trying to fill some kind of diversity quota”, or some other way in which your worth is diminished, or measured by completely different standards to men.’
To hear a full discussion of Is Australia Sexist? listen to this week’s Binge List – out now. Details below!
And an extended interview with Yumi will appear in the new issue of WHO magazine, out Thursday.
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