Why Hoda Kotb Isn’t Making “Matt Lauer Money”

As allegations of sexual misconduct piled up against Matt Lauer, a few details grabbed especially rapt focus. The reported button under his desk, which he could allegedly use to close the door to his office, was one of them. Another was his salary: a whopping $20 million to $25 million, depending on the source. That latter detail resurfaced Wednesday, as word got out that Lauer’s replacement, Hoda Kotb, will reportedly be making substantially less money.

On the surface, this could seem like a straightforward case of sexism; Kotb, after all, is a similarly seasoned anchor who’s performing the exact same job Lauer did—and her selection is a historic one, bringing Today its first all-female anchor line-up. In fact, she’s actually doing more, since she will continue to host her traditional Today hour with Katie Lee Gifford even as she takes over the main Today desk. But the reality of the situation is a little more complicated.

According to Page Six, Kotb’s boosted salary landed at $7 million—the same amount that her new co-anchor Savannah Guthrie earns, Page Six adds. Analyst and Hollywood Reporter contributor Andrew Tyndall, by contrast, estimated Kotb’s salary at roughly $5 million. (Representatives for Today did not immediately respond to V.F.’s request for comment.) The newly minted Today co-anchor herself has confirmed that she’ll be making less than her male predecessor, though she has not disclosed the actual amount—telling People, “The answer is no—that’s not happening.”

“I know it sounds ridiculous that I’m going to say this,” Kotb continued, “but I really have done jobs I liked for the job I liked because I never wanted to be happy every other Friday on pay day. Like, I didn’t want that to be the happy day. I wanted to feel good throughout. So no, I’m not making Matt Lauer money. Not even close.”

The optics are, to put it mildly, not good: Today now has two female co-anchors whose combined salaries still reportedly do not even equal that of their disgraced male counterpart. But there are other details to consider—most importantly, seniority. Lauer served as a co-anchor for two decades, whereas Guthrie stepped into her current role in 2012. And as Variety’s Brien Steinberg notes, Lauer had been re-negotiating his contract every few years—so it’s not hard to imagine how he got to such a high number. Regardless of field, new hires rarely manage to secure the same salary as their departing predecessors.

It will be far more telling to watch how Kotb’s salary continues to grow as NBC watches Today ratings over time to see if the current bump is just a fluke. And while it’s by no means a sign of how all women at NBC News are treated, it is worth noting that Megyn Kelly managed to secure a reported salary of $15 million as she made the move to the network from Fox.

There’s also a more industry-specific potential explanation for this disparity: as the news industry continues to shift, and viewership continues to erode across the board, the mega-salaries of yore stand to become more and more rare. As Steinberg notes, “there’s been a growing consensus in the industry in recent weeks that fewer are going to snare those figures in the future. The economics of the business no longer support it.” Still, there’s probably no harm in all of us crossing our fingers in the hopes that once she’s spent more time in the job, Kotb—and Guthrie—are able to secure a few big, fat raises of their own.

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