LAST week’s publication by the BBC of the salaries of their highest-paid stars took the definition of public service broadcasting to a brand new level.

At first glance, it enabled the first real tabloid feeding frenzy of the summer season. This financial league table of talent stoked the inherent inquisitiveness inside each of us. But as the sensationalism has subsided over the past few days, the real issues of substance emerged front and centre. The huge disparity in pay between the highest male and female earners in the BBC has reignited the national debate on the importance of equal pay for equal work and the issues around the wider gender pay gap. While I applaud the collective efforts of the female stars who joined together at the weekend in a show of solidarity to their BBC bosses to call for a fair deal for them and their colleagues, this is not an issue confined to this single high-profile organisation.

It remains the case that even as the moral argument for equality has undoubtedly been won – I’ve yet to hear any real justification for the gap that has been exposed – at the current glacial rate of progress it will take until 2070 before the overall pay gap is bridged. This is a systematic failure which must be urgently addressed.

That’s why I support measures like the recent legislation that will ensure all large organisations in the UK will be required to publish details of the difference between the average pay of male and female employees. This enforced transparency will not be a panacea, but it’s a step in the right direction.

At the same time, additional pressure must be brought to bear on those organisations that are still holding out on women by failing to settle equal-pay claims in a timely manner. We shouldn’t give up on the real victims of the system when it’s clear that the law over equal pay hasn’t been adhered to.

Addressing these specific issues will be important steps in this journey towards equality. But we shouldn’t sit back and wait for change – we need to reach out and grasp this opportunity now it’s back in the public eye.

The scale of the challenge, and the opportunity, of closing the gender pay gap was clearly spelled out in a report by Holyrood’s Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee last month. It estimated that the cost of the pay gap to the Scottish economy, which stands at a difference of about 16 percent between the average earnings of men and women, is currently in the region of £17 billion a year, a transformational sum.

The cross-party committee’s report was clear that the reasons behind the gender pay gap are heavily ingrained in our economy and our society, and so identified action that would require to be taken in Scotland’s education, skills, childcare, procurement, and business support sectors if real progress is to be made. What it did stress was the opportunity Scotland now has, with widespread backing in and outside parliament, to become a world leader in reducing this iniquitous gap.

That’s why it’s vital, I believe, to use the opportunity of this national debate to hammer the final nail in the coffin of pay inequality.

Over and above the changes already planned, we must go further and faster if we’re to capitalise on the current momentum behind change. So, let’s first strive to create a culture of openness and transparency about pay at all levels of our economy, so that enterprises, public-sector bodies and charities large and small can all benefit from this new perspective. There must be a way that we can enable this progressive change without demanding a cumbersome bureaucracy to go with it, so let’s press forward. It should be the norm that pay transparency is at the centre of every organisation. What do they have to hide?

Let’s also look and learn from the experience elsewhere in Europe, where the open publication of tax returns is widespread and commonplace. Other societies celebrate the contribution that high earners make to the common good by paying their share, why can’t we?

The position the BBC found itself in last week was not one of its own choosing. I’m sure I’m not the only one to enjoy the irony that while the purpose of this move by Theresa May’s right-wing government was to stymie the public-service broadcaster, instead they’ve given the issue of the gender pay gap an unprecedented national platform.

Let’s grasp this chance with both hands, and create a level playing field for all workers in the years to come.