Catt Sadler is opening up about her decision to leave “E! News” in December 2017, after discovering her co-host was making nearly double her salary.
Penning an essay in Vanity Fair in light of Equal Pay Day, the former TV reporter discusses her battle with the “mom tax” in the workplace and her decision to leave the network after 12 years.
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As a single mother to two boys, ages 12 and 16, Sadler writes that after a “year or more” in her role, she was “rewarded with a new daytime show and asked to arrive to work three hours earlier each day.”
“I didn’t get a salary bonus for this, or overtime pay; it was just what I was expected to do,” she says. “As a single mother, not being able to drive my boys to school meant having to invest in another mode of transportation for them.”
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Sadler reveals she hired a driver for her boys, which could cost upwards of “$12,000 a year.” When it was time for renegotiate her contract, Sadler says that was when she discovered the pay gap between her and her co-host.
“I learned that my male co-host was being paid double my salary,” Sadler explains. “Not a little bit more, not substantially more. Double. He wasn’t doing double the amount of work. He wasn’t working double the hours.”
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Sadler claims the network did not want to provide equal pay, prompting her to leave, but not without considering the future of her children.
“I walked away from the table, left my job and went public,” she recalls. “My decision meant not only soul-searching about taking an ethical stand, but also considering my children and their future.”
Revealing the disparity mothers face in the workplace, she adds, “Women are already starting out at a salary disadvantage, but moms? Having kids – and all the expenses that come with them – puts us at yet another disadvantage.”
Calling it the “mom tax,” Sadler, who has since partnered with Luna Bar to combat pay inequality, continues, “Women are learning to embrace the courage to tell their stories, and together our voices are louder and stronger.”
