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Andrew Todd tells us that the recent pay offer gives a "cash increase" of 3.52 per cent, 3.77 per cent and 2.08 per cent over three years (Letters, June 16). These figures (derived from the difference between the money earned by the end of the year and the salary at the start) do not account for the cumulative effects of staged rises, so the figures for the second and third years are wrong. By this reasoning, the cash value of a rise of 23 per cent given on July 31, 2007, would be zero.

With the current offer, salaries for those who do not leave the profession will have increased after three years by a minimum of 13.1 per cent. The offer is good or bad on the basis of that figure: please do not mislead people into thinking the offer is worse than it is.

Dave Graham

Plymouth University