Setting target for more pay

Jul 4 2006 By Helen Logan Evening Gazette

I am all for women getting equal pay to men. But a rider needs to be added and that is that it must be for equal work.

Sometimes it must be a minefield trying to evaluate whether women doing similar but not exactly comparable jobs should be getting the same salary as male colleagues.

But there is one case where I do not think women deserve parity with the blokes.

And that is at Wimbledon.

This thorny question has raised its head again now we are into the fortnight of strawberries and cream, frequent rain showers and dashed British hopes.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has even joined the call for women tennis players to receive the same prize money as male competitors.

Mr Blair said he supported Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell, who has written an open letter to the All England Lawn Tennis Club asking for sex equality.

Apparently the championship is the only major international tennis tournament not to offer equal pay to male and female winners, with the women's winner scooping £625,000 compared to £655,000 for the men's.

But at Wimbledon female competitors do not compete on an equal footing with their male counterparts.

Their matches only comprise a maximum of three sets, compared to five for the men.

If women want the same prize pot as the men, they should have to play five-setters.

Parity is only fair enough in contests where the men and women play the same number of sets.