A top BBC presenter has said she would earn more money if she had a posh accent instead of her pronounced north-east twang.

Middlesbrough-born BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern said she had only “just now” made it to a six-figure salary while “posher” colleagues do similar roles for “a hell of a lot more”.

The 35-year-old also said the BBC should do more to encourage working-class people into broadcasting.

“We concentrate too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on class. It’s dead important to represent loads of different cultures. But what the BBC doesn’t do enough of is thinking about getting people from more working-class backgrounds,” she told the Sunday Times.

Speaking to the Guardian on Sunday, she clarified her remarks, saying the BBC should not do less work recruiting more people from ethnic minority backgrounds, but should give more consideration to class: “If you focus on class too, then that will bring with it diversity in every sense, not just ethnicity. There shouldn’t just be a focus on ethnicity.”

McGovern added: “A lot of people who talk to me in the street [and] say they like me on telly are people from ethnic minorities, because we’re often from a similar socio-economic background.”

McGovern, the daughter of a teacher and radiographer, told the Sunday Times that she has had to argue consistently to get paid fairly. “It’s not as simple as a gender issue; it’s partly down to class. There are a lot of women who do a similar job to me who are paid a hell of a lot more ... who are a lot posher than me.”

She did not make it on to the BBC’s best-paid list last year, which only features presenters and stars earning more than £150,000. The list included the news and Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce, who earns between £350,000 and £399,999, and Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark, who takes home £150,000-£199,999.

McGovern believes too many BBC managers are out of touch with ordinary people: “A lot of people in management are from the same background. We’re talking about ‘how do we represent more working-class people?’, when they themselves are not working-class. So how do they know?” she told the Sunday Times.

Earlier this month McGovern tweeted farewell to Louisa Compton, editor of BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, who had been poached by Channel 4: “Huge loss for the BBC – a Bafta-winning journalist – one of few who investigates stories real people care about and doesn’t live in a political/media bubble.”

A few years ago, a BBC Breakfast viewer wrote in to give McGovern £20 towards curing her “affliction”, meaning her accent.

She told the Sunday Express magazine: “I even got one letter that politely said, ‘Dear Ms McGovern, I watched you on BBC Breakfast. I’m sorry about your terrible affliction. Here’s £20 towards correction therapy.’”

A BBC spokeswoman said: “More than 80% of the BBC’s workforce was educated in state schools and the BBC is more diverse than it has ever been. The BBC has a clear commitment to finding and developing new talent.

“We offer hundreds of apprenticeships to ensure the BBC is open to people from all backgrounds and a range of programmes to help people develop their career once they’ve joined, but there’s always more to do and we have an ambitious diversity strategy which sets out our commitment to fully reflecting and representing the whole of the UK.”

Almost half of BBC employees (48%) come from a family in which neither parent had a degree but 61% come from families in which the main earner had a higher managerial and professional job.