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It is good to see the gender gap in academic pay getting attention (News, THES , July 20), but what about the gap between academics and others?

In the dim mists of time, academic pay bore reasonable comparison with that of senior teachers, medical professionals, police and army officers. No longer. No one expects politicians to offer catch-up rises. A campaign on gender-based pay does, however, have one major advantage: it has infinitely more appeal to the Treasury than one based on restoration of differentials.

After all, think how delightfully long it will take to decide on a fair gender-based system and how agreeably less expensive it will be to implement.

Alan Hallsworth
Alsager, Cheshire