Should we compare pay slips? The inequality of earnings

The most open of folk, who spill saucy secrets about themselves, clam up when asked how much they earn. Revealing your salary, especially to colleagues, is taboo.

Conventional wisdom says that knowing fellow workers’ salaries sows discord. I know first-hand how explosive it can be to learn what people you work with get paid.

I’d been promoted to a senior management role where I needed to know everyone’s pay. On my first morning my new boss entered my office with an armful of employee files and told me to read them. Closing my door, he said he would return to take me to lunch with a bottle of red wine, which he added, I might need.

The files made hard reading. Time and time again, I discovered that lazy or incompetent colleagues made more than dedicated, industrious people at the same level, many of whom were my friends. When I’d finished I was seething.