Could publishing income details end frustration over unequal pay? Photograph: Corbis
A move by the government in Italy to publish the incomes of every Italian citizen on the web is proving controversial. But it might be a pointer to how governments elsewhere could tackle the stubbornly persistent gender pay gap.
The Italian finance ministry says that putting details of the declared taxable income of every citizen on the country's tax website will help fight tax evasion. A similar thing has been happening for years in Norway.
Critics say it's an outrageous breach of privacy. Yet salary experts reckon more transparency about pay could help reduce the inequalities between men and women's earnings. In the UK, men are paid on average 17.2% more than women in the same position.
Research by consultancy firm Hudson shows 60% of workers would be comfortable revealing what they get paid to colleagues if it meant pay parity could be achieved.
This week, campaign group Opportunity Now handed out awards to UK employers who are addressing the issue of inequality in their own way - from Lloyds TSB, where 44% of group executives are women, to the Ministry of Defence Police and Guardian Agency, which has introduced women's patrol boots and smaller motorcycles.
But would publishing details of everyone's pay provide employers with a bigger incentive to treat employees equally than any number of plaudits?
