Catt Sadler Leaves 'E!' After Learning Her Male Co-Host Earned Double Her Salary
If you tune into E! for some celebrity news over the next few days, you might notice that Catt Sadler, one of the network’s most popular and busiest hosts, won’t be gracing the small screen. And it’s for a very unfortunate reason.
As reported by People, Catt has decided to leave E! owing to a large pay disparity with her current E! News co-host, Jason Kennedy—specifically, that Jason was earning double the amount as she was for the same job. “Up until this point, I mean it really has been a dream job. Literally a dream job. I’m from Indiana, born and raised, and I had my sights set on E! and I’ve seen the world. I’ve had the best experiences,” Catt said in a statement. “I’ve gotten incredibly close with all of my coworkers. It’s like a family here and it’s been beautiful for the majority of my run. I pinch myself every day the job that I get to do. I have so much fun. It has almost been surreal. But then, this year happened.”
Specifically, 2017 brought forth a two-hour live daily show for Catt, Daily Pop, as well as her regular gig as co-host of the mega-popular E! News. When it was time to negotiate a new contract going into the new year, it was then she realized that “my male equivalent at the network who I started with the same year and have come up with doing essentially similar jobs, if not the same job, wasn’t just making a little bit more than me but was making double my salary and has been for several years.” When negotiations proved not to be fruitful for a pay increase that was equivalent to Jason’s, Catt then decided to leave.
“That was really hard to swallow, but you know information is supposed to be power and when my team began negotiations knowing what we knew, that was the barometer in which I expected to be paid, based on the law and based on what I know to be fair,” Catt explained. “And what I believe in my heart of hearts is reasonable … I’m a single mom of two kids. I’ve given my all to this network. I’ve sacrificed time away from my family and I have dedicated my entire career to this network. And when you learn something like that, it makes you feel very small and underappreciated and undervalued.”
What does the future hold for Catt? She’s not sure, but promises her fans will see her soon in some capacity—perhaps on a new network, even.
Related: Serena Williams Wrote a Powerful Essay About How Black Women Can Address the Pay Gap