A senior editor for BBC News accused the network in an open letter on Sunday of operating a “secretive and illegal” salary system that pays men more than women in similar positions.

The editor, Carrie Gracie, who joined the network 30 years ago, said she quit her position as China editor last week to protest pay inequality within the company. In the letter posted on her website, she said that she and other women had long suspected that their male counterparts drew larger salaries and that BBC management had refused to acknowledge the problem.

She said she decided to make her story public, risking discipline or dismissal, because she wanted viewers to know the BBC had been “resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure.”

“I simply want the BBC to abide by the law and value men and women equally,” Ms. Gracie wrote, citing the Equality Act 2010, which states that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay. “On pay, the BBC is not living up to its stated values of trust, honesty and accountability.”