Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. In Hong Kong, women earned 33.3 per cent less than men in terms of their median monthly salaries in 2016, according to the Census and Statistics Department. Although the percentage dropped to 25 per cent in 2020, it is clear that the gender pay gap remains a major concern in the city’s job market. The Civil Service Bureau maintains that its pay policy is gender neutral and based on the principle of meritocracy. The bureau does not consider that there is any issue of gender pay inequality within the government and has issued no report on the matter. In contrast, the British government requires any organisation with at least 250 employees to report its gender pay gap information on a government website known as the gender pay gap service. The website publishes the gender pay gap reports of over 13,000 employers including nearly 2,000 from the public sector. According to the reports, at the publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), woman earned 9.3 per cent less than men in terms of their median hourly pay in 2017. This gap narrowed to 6.2 per cent in 2020. To investigate the gender pay gap in the Hong Kong government, we selected RTHK, an organisation comparable to the BBC, to conduct a case study. Using data provided by the government, we found that for the 2020-21 financial year, among the 673 full-time employees at RTHK (362 females and 311 males), 32 women and 58 men earn in the lower monthly salary band. In the middle and upper salary bands, women make up the majority, at 266 and 64 respectively, compared to 194 and 59 for men. As a result, women’s average hourly pay stood at HK$303 (US$38), 4.8 per cent higher than for men. RTHK should be commended for its pay gap that is much smaller than the 25 per cent recorded for the whole of Hong Kong. As the public sector should lead by example, we call on the Civil Service Bureau and the Equal Opportunities Commission to conduct systematic and regular studies on this issue across the entire government and public sector to uphold the principles of gender equality. Kay Deng and Simon Wang, Kowloon Tong Gender equality at work: how do Hong Kong, Singapore and others compare? Higher petrol prices have their upside I refer to your article “Growing ‘circle of friends’ to help secure supply” (April 2). Hopefully, higher fuel prices globally will result in less gratuitous fuel waste, especially by individual consumers. For one thing, I have frequently walked past parked vehicles with their engines idling for many minutes, even in very warm weather. Sometimes, I would also see the exhaust spewed by a vanity vehicle, a metallic beast with its signature superfluously very large body and wheels, yet which does not appear to be used for work or family transport. Inside each is the driver, typically staring down into their laps, probably their smartphones. I could not help but wonder whether they are some of the people posting complaints on social media about a possible increase in petrol prices or taxes. Here in Canada, the carbon tax, though it is more than recouped via government rebates (except for those earning high incomes), induces much pastime complaining. Meanwhile, the mass addiction to fossil fuel helps keep the average consumer quiet about one of the planet’s greatest polluters. Frank Sterle Jnr, British Columbia, Canada Polar Silk Road’s financial gain will be too huge to ignore In Nikolai Gogol’s novel Dead Souls , the protagonist hears from his father that “never will a kopeck fail you, whatever may be your plight”. That’s the answer to your question (“What next for China’s Polar Silk Road as Russian invasion of Ukraine sparks Arctic freeze?”, March 21 ). Global warming has provided both Moscow and Beijing with a cheap sea route – one that cannot be Balkanised, sanctioned or blockaded. That endless source of trustworthy kopecks can be stopped only by global cooling. Besides, a shopper in Europe can’t boycott a commodity brought via the Polar Silk Road as the route, like all others, is never mentioned. A Hongkonger buying Australian wine can guess how it arrived in their shop while a Muscovite buying Chilean wine cannot. In his first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet , Arthur Conan Doyle appeared to endorse Gogol’s idea. The story ends with the Latin phrase “ Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplor in arca” , or “The public hisses at me, but I am pleased with myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strongbox”. Mergen Mongush, Moscow, Russia Smoker deaths as much a crisis as Covid-19 toll More than 8,000 in Hong Kong have died from Covid-19 – this is roughly the same as the number of people who die every year as a result of tobacco dependence. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was reported as saying that the handling of Covid-19 “deserves a thorough review as this is such a massive public health crisis as so many people have died”. I would argue that the annual deaths from tobacco use in Hong Kong are equally a massive public health crisis and require the same attention and funding. It is utterly regrettable that there has been no increase in tobacco tax in Hong Kong for many years, as all the evidence points to the established fact that the best way of cutting the number of young people starting to smoke is to increase tobacco prices. The reason is simple – it makes cigarettes unaffordable to the young. There is even an important link between all forms of tobacco use and Covid-19: Heavy smokers are 48 per cent more likely to contract serious Covid-19 conditions, according to joint research by the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr Judith Mackay, Sai Kung