Equal Pay

The Government favours equal pay for equal work and apparently intends to give a lead to employers by raising the salaries of women civil servants to that of men who do the same work. This is surely inflationary—no more work is to be done yet more money is to be paid for doing it. There will presumably thus be more money in circulation but no more goods to buy. But why raise the women's pay to that of the men? Equal pay for equal work could, of course, be achieved by lowering the men's pay to that of the women. This, of course, would bring howls of protest from the men (and those wives who do not go out to work). The only fair thing is to average out the pay of men and women employees and thereby not increase the total amount paid out by the employers. For example, say that for doing a certain job three men and two women are employed and that the men now get £900 a year each and the women £650 a year each. Thus the total paid is £4,000, which, divided equally among all five would give the men and women £800 a year each. Such a plan would also bring plenty of howls but if the public is really in favour of the equal pay for equal work principle and do not want its introduction to be followed by a round of price increases, then that is what they will have to put up with. Whatever happens the men will be worse off than before.