Nina Parker recently explained the gender pay disparity that led her to quit her job at celebrity news tabloid TMZ.
During a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, Parker said, “When I left TMZ, I did not have a job. I quit because they did not want to pay me.”
She was unaware of the pay disparity until she “accidentally” opened a white male co-worker’s pay envelope and saw that he made significantly more money than she did.
Parker said her co-worker earned six figures while she was paid just $50,000 annually.
“I was making well under that, and I had been there, and I was contributing,” Parker said. “I was breaking stories. I was a part of Michael Jackson’s death, being broken. I was a part of major stories. Bernie Mac’s death. I was the managing editor on weekends, so it was just me and Harvey in that office and a PA.”
She added, “This was before pay disparity was really a thing. It was just accepted that the women take less.”
Parker said she didn’t have a social life while working at TMZ. She was disappointed when she was passed over for a promotion.
“I gave up my weekends for three years, and I was like, ‘I put in the work.’ It was my life. I didn’t have a boyfriend. I didn’t have friends. I wasn’t going to the club, and I felt like I was owed this money,” she said.
“I didn’t have another job. I did not have an agent. And I was like, ‘I quit.’ I didn’t have nothing, but I knew people liked me,” Parker added.
After working as a correspondent on CBS’s Insider, Parker took a job at E! and launched her own fashion line, the Nina Parker Collection. She currently co-hosts Friday Night Vibes, a movie and pop culture show on TBS.
