Quantcast
RELATED
Jemele Hill Reveals That She Was Paid $200,000 Less Than Her Former ESPN Co-Anchor
Celebrity News

Jemele Hill Reveals That She Was Paid $200,000 Less Than Her Former ESPN Co-Anchor

Jemele Hill has made a name for herself in journalism due to her witty and informative commentary that many folks enjoy. She began her career working for the Detroit Free Press answering phones and worked her way up to journalist. However, when she began appearing on ESPN shows such as Outside the Lines, First Take, and SportsCenter, she was quickly becoming a household name.


But while she was gaining notoriety with the popular sports network, her paycheck didn’t reflect her success. In an interview with Revolt TV’s Assets Over Liabilities show, the 46-year-old journalist said she was underpaid in comparison to her SC6 co-anchor Michael Smith.

“It wasn’t until I got to ESPN that I really got serious about the business side of journalism because I got to see what people made. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s possible?!’” she said. “ESPN forced me to really grow up because it’s a different game being played at that level than it is at the previous places I had been,” she said. This is the first time I had an agent and the first time I really had to learn how to manage my money.”

While she was making major moves securing an agent and taking care of the business side of things, she still wasn’t paid her worth revealing that she was making $200,000 less than Smith. She also said that she was an independent contractor for the network and only made $120,000 a year with most of it going towards taxes and healthcare.

“It’s not so much about what you’re worth, it’s about what you will negotiate,” she said. “I started at ESPN at such a low salary, to begin with. One of those, ‘We’ll see how it works kind of contracts. A 2-and-2 contract: two-year deal with a two-year option, one of the worst contracts I ever signed.”

However, she learned a valuable lesson. “The lesson that I learned, you can’t sell out for a name,” she said.

While she wasn’t being paid her worth at the network, she has since had a very fruitful career following her departure from SportsCenter. Jemele began writing for The Atlantic and she now has her own podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered where she has interviewed a variety of notable figures in sports, entertainment, and politics.

Jemele Hill On ESPN, CNN, The Business Of Journalism, Her Career & More | Assets Over Liabilitiesyoutu.be

Featured image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

 

RELATED

 
ALSO ON XONECOLE
5 Things To Tap Into For 'UnPrisoned' Season 2

This article is sponsored by Hulu.

UnPrisonedhas returned for its highly anticipated second season, delving deeper into the complex dynamics of the Alexander family.

The series premiere comes a year after its debut season garnered rave reviews from fans and critics and earned record-breaking ratings for Hulu's Onyx Collective brand. UnPrisoned's success can be attributed to its raw, relatable themes and comedic appeal.

KEEP READINGShow less
Mariee Revere

If the name Mariee Revere sounds familiar, it's probably because you heard of her beauty and skincare brand, MoonXCosmetics, or you may have heard about her history-making achievement of making $1.8 million in less than eight minutes. But before starting her million-dollar brand, Mariee was just a teenager trying to cure her acne.

While she grew up in the skincare capital of the world, South Korea, Mariee didn't really experience breakouts until her senior year of high school. Like many people who get their first breakout, she didn't know what to do, and there weren't many products out there at that time. So she decided to experiment. What she didn't know was that what she came up with would ultimately be her ticket to success.

KEEP READINGShow less
LATEST POSTS