Equal Pay for Equal Work There will be general approval
of the principle under- lying the resolution carried, by 150 votes to 56, in the House of Commons on Wednesday for the equalisation of the salaries of Cabinet Ministers, apart from the Prime Minister's, which should be increased. The justice of the proposal is too obvious to need much argument. The relative importance of Cabinet posts cannot be assessed financially with any accuracy, and the pooling of salaries carried out during the War worked well in practice. That the Prime Minister should have £10,000 and a pension is an entirely reasonable proposal, though it would not be if Premiers went in and out of office as they do in certain not distant countries. The suggestion that the Leader of the Opposition should be given a salary of £2,000 commends itself less readily. His duties in the House of Commons are exacting, but they cannot be compared with the tax on a Minister's time and energies. What is more important, opposition leadership is often a very open question—witness more than one historic meeting at the Carlton Club—and it is on the whole much better that the choice should not be complicated by any financial considerations. A salary of £2,000 might mean little to a rich man. But the House is not composed mainly of rich men today.
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