Transparent salaries

SIR – You report (telegraph.co.uk, August 25) that female managers earn 22 per cent less than their male counterparts. More companies need to adopt open salary policies to help close the gender pay gap.

At my company, we have an open salary policy. Jobs are clearly defined with a salary connected to each role and strict criteria on the qualities required to qualify for a higher salary. When recruiting someone from another agency, there are no private deals or negotiations for an increase in base pay or an extra week’s holiday.

Sadly, in the private sector almost all companies have a culture of secrecy around who is paid what, and until that changes the gender pay gap problem will not go away.

Peter Burgess Director, Retail Human Resources London W9

SIR – While travelling on a train recently from London to Crewe, I was sitting next to two Welsh businessmen who were talking business, in Welsh.

In the middle of a sentence I heard the English words “six-figure salary”, for which there is, presumably, no Welsh equivalent.

I didn’t gather whether the money provided happiness or not (“Is a sixfigure salary bad for your health?”, Features, August 25).

Roderic Mather

Skipton, North Yorkshire