Readers reply: would equal pay create a better society?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers wage equality

This week’s question: historically speaking, what were the most accurate predictions of the future?

I once worked in an equal pay collective, and the principle has always seemed a good one to me. The person who worked on reception was just as important as the managing director – their actions could be make or break for the company. I remember also meeting someone, a member of the British Communist party, who had been impressed by a visit to East Germany (at that time a communist state). It stuck in my mind that she said the incentive for people to become, for example, surgeons, was simply that, though they wouldn’t necessarily receive higher pay, it was more satisfying work than, say, being a road sweeper. So is equal pay possible, desirable even, and would it create a better society overall? Stuart Macmillan, Fife

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