It is as astonishing as it is unacceptable that, despite the growing number of women workers—indeed, they now outnumber men in half the local authority areas in Britain—they and we tolerate female rates of pay that are up to 25 per cent. lower than male ones. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, in addition to the legal and moral question, such inequality is now having an adverse economic impact? Women having less money to spend is unnecessarily restricting development of the service sector, as we see in many parts of the United Kingdom.