C4, Watershed unite for office salaries doc

June 27, 2012 by Kelly Anderson

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has commissioned Watershed TV to make Show Me Your Money, a documentary which follows an office experiment breaking the taboo of discussing salaries.

In the one-hour doc, the managing director of Pimlico Plumbers asks his workforce to reveal how much they are paid, and the workers see that there are pay discrepancies between colleagues doing the same jobs.

The boss then challenges his employees to come up with a new pay scheme that is fair for everyone, and is voted on by the whole group. Show Me Your Money is inspired by a pay experiment from the 1950s.

“Some people think the last taboo is sex; others believe the last taboo is death, when in actual fact it is sharing with the person next to you, just how much your salary is,” said C4′s commissioning editor Sara Ramsden, who ordered the special. “For the first time on TV, this extraordinary experiment lifts the lid on the unfairness that exists in every single workplace in Britain.”

Watershed TV is a Shed Media company, and Show Me Your Money is produced and directed by Helen Richards and executive produced by Mark Rubens.

Tags: Channel 4, Shed Media Group, Show Me Your Money, Watershed TV