Egalitarians were once often accused of wishing to ‘level down’; bringing everyone down to a lower level if this is the only way to secure equality. In the light of work by Rawls and Parfit it is possible to construct recognisably egalitarian theories which avoid levelling down. However in this paper it is argued that in some special cases it is right to level down, even if this does not improve the situation of the worst. These are cases where inequality has a certain symbolic function or meaning.Article