The presenter’s salary was a topic of discussion following the report that Pauw was going to tie his 2019 salary negotiations with a purchase guarantee for his production company TVBV. For example, by working as a producer he can earn extra money in addition to his work as a presenter.
Pauw explains that he founded his production company 22 years ago, when he was still working at RTL. “Jan-Peter Balkenende was still a part-time professor somewhere and there was no doubt about a cheerful standard at all. Later I came to work at the public broadcaster and that standard was introduced. I think it’s okay, even if it wasn’t my idea… but Do people seriously expect me to do all the work plus my presentation for free?”
The WNT standard applies to public broadcasting, which is intended to combat excessive pay and severance payments in organizations in the public or semi-public sector. The cap is set at €216,000 in 2022. In July, the NPO confirmed that no applicant had received a salary higher than the standard since 2020.
The Media Authority announced in July that it would investigate financial oversight of the Higher Income Standards Act (WNT) in the media. The nonprofit has requested that the case surrounding Pauw be included in this investigation. Pauw then said in his response that he “was not a shareholder of TVBV during the period under discussion, did not hold a management position and was not involved in or responsible for the business cycle of TVBV”.