Exploring Wage Inequality in Professional Sports

Wage inequality in professional sports is something that has interested me for a while. It seems strange to me that female athletes aren’t paid as well as male athletes. Females are able to play the same sports as males, so it seems odd that they aren’t compensated nearly as well for playing those sports. Take professional basketball for example. In the WNBA, the women’s[1] league, the average annual team salary is $900,000 and any individual player is capped at $101,000.[2] In the NBA, the men’s league, the Houston Rockets, the team with the lowest annual salary, pays its players almost $48,000,000.[3] Even the lowest paid player on the Rockets makes $473,000 per year, almost five times as much as the best-paid female player in the WNBA. This discrepancy only gets worse when you consider the higher paid teams and players. The Los Angeles Lakers annual team salary is over $100,000,000, and they pay Kobe Bryant alone over $27,000,000.[4] This means that Bryant, the highest paid male player, makes almost 270 times as much as the highest paid female player. In fact, since the WNBA only has twelve teams, Bryant makes more than twice as much as every player in the WNBA combined.

 

You might think that basketball is just a bad example and the discrepancy isn’t usually this great. Unfortunately, the WNBA is one of the more generous examples. Most sports don’t even have professional female leagues. While there is technically an organized, supposedly professional, female hockey league in Canada, they aren’t actually paid to play (something I assumed was required to be considered a professional athlete).[5] Players in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) have their ice time and travel expenses covered by their teams, but do not receive a salary.[6] Things just get worse when you consider baseball and American football. To my knowledge, there are no female professional leagues for either of these sports, despite them being two of the most popular sports in North America.  

 

Tennis may be the lone beacon of hope for wage equality between the sexes in professional sports. In all four Grand Slam events, the most important tennis tournaments of the year, males and females receive equal prize money at every stage of the tournament.[7] For example, at the Australian Open, both male and female singles players receive $20,800 just for qualifying, and this amount increases with each win culminating in the $2,300,000 prize for the champions.[8] The International Tennis Federation (ITF) regulates the Grand Slams for both males and females, but different groups organize the other tournaments. The men’s tour is organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), while the women’s tour is organized by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Though they are different organizations, they work together closely and many of the tournaments are jointly organized. It would be time consuming, though not impossible, to determine if female players receive equal prize money in all tournaments, but from my brief investigations that seems to be the case in the joint events.[9] The only exception I could find was, oddly enough, the Rogers Cup held in Toronto and Montreal. It is an unusual tournament in that it is played in two cities. This year the ATP players played in Toronto, and the WTA players played in Montreal, but the organizations swap cities every year. Even here, the prize money discrepancy wasn’t that large. The prize pool for males was $2,648,700, while the prize pool for females was $2,168,400.[10] Because of all this, it may not be surprising that tennis players make up seven of the top ten highest earning female athletes.[11]

 

Now that we have some numbers to work with, I think it is painfully obvious that this is a real problem. I now want to look at a few reasons why this inequality might exist.

 

I think the first justification we would encounter is that people just aren’t interested in watching females play sports. Since professional sports depend on fans paying for seats at the events, if female teams don’t attract as many fans as male teams, then female teams won’t have as much money, which means they can’t pay their players as much. This might be the fact of the matter, but I still think it’s important to ask why people don’t want to watch females play sports. I’m not convinced that this problem is as purely financially driven as it seems.

 

You might think that it’s because females just aren’t as good at the games they are playing as males are. The best female players are simply not as strong or as fast as the best male players, and so watching males play is more interesting. Since people only want to watch the most interesting versions of the sports they like, they choose to watch males play.

 

I think this claim is too strong. I think there are certainly differences between how males and females play sports, but I don’t think the female versions are inherently worse or less interesting. I personally enjoy men’s tennis more than women’s tennis, because it is faster and the shots are more powerful. That said, I still enjoy women’s tennis, I paid to see Victoria Azarenka play Agnieszka Radwanska at the Australian Open earlier this year. I don’t think women’s tennis is worse than men’s tennis, but it is certainly different. The women’s matches are slower with both more and longer baseline rallies, while the men’s matches tend to be faster, with more of an emphasis on serving and powerful winners. I like watching big serves and powerful winners, so I prefer watching men’s tennis, but it’s perfectly reasonable to prefer long, intense, baseline rallies, and so prefer women’s tennis. I use tennis as an example only because I know it best. Presumably this difference is evident in other sports as well. I’ve heard there are far fewer dunks in the WNBA because very few females are tall enough to dunk consistently.[12] This doesn’t make the game inherently worse, but if what you like about basketball is amazing dunks, then you might justifiably be less interested in women’s basketball.

 

I think there are two problems with this potential justification. First, it seems as though we could solve some of these problems by adapting the games to better suit the average size of females. For example, if people aren’t watching women’s basketball because it doesn’t have enough dunking, then the WNBA could just lower the hoop a bit to enable more dunking. Second, this justification only seems to give some reason to pay females in proportion to how much less interesting they are to watch. Though Kobe Bryant is likely a better basketball player than the best female player, surely he isn’t 270 times better. So even if we could use the difference in skill level to justify paying male players a little bit more, it certainly can’t be used to justify the current distribution.

 

I think the real problem isn’t that people aren’t interested in watching females play sports, but that all-female leagues rarely receive any media attention. It’s very difficult to develop a strong fan base if those fans can only see you play at an arena. The real money in professional sports comes from television and advertising deals. For example, the big four television networks in the United States[13] paid the NFL about 20 billion dollars between 2007 and 2013 for the privilege of airing their games.[14] This will be increasing to closer to 40 billion dollars for the period between 2014 and 2022.[15] In contrast, the WNBA is the only female professional league that even has a television deal, and while the terms of this deal weren’t made public, I think it’s safe to assume that it is valued in the millions, not the billions.

 

I think the tennis example shows that people are interested in watching females play sports. The most popular female tennis players, like Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, and Caroline Wozniacki are significantly more popular than many male players. Most people know who Serena Williams is, while I doubt many people who don’t watch tennis know who David Ferrer is. This just doesn’t seem to be the case in other sports. Before researching this post I couldn’t name one WNBA or CWHL player, in fact, I didn’t even know the CWHL existed. I assume I’m not an anomaly in this regard and that female athletes just aren’t as well known as their male counterparts.

 

So why can’t other sports generate the same interest in female leagues? I think this all comes back to the lack of media attention female leagues receive. Think back to the Winter Olympics in 2010. People were really excited about women’s hockey, maybe not quite as excited as they were about men’s hockey, but certainly excited. I think this shows that there is an audience who would watch women’s hockey as long as it is presented in an interesting way. Now think about the last time you saw females playing hockey on TV. If I had to bet, it was probably during the Winter Olympics in 2010. If people are clearly interested in watching females play hockey, how come it isn’t ever on television? You would think with the NHL lockout that people would be clamoring for any alternative they could get their hands on. Would it really hurt CBC to show a few CWHL games? Surely it couldn’t do any worse than whatever nonsense they have on most of the time.

 

I’m certainly not an expert in the world of sports, but from the research I did for this post, it seems pretty clear to me that something bad is going on here. By not having strong female athletes on television as role models, young women and girls are unlikely to be inspired to keep playing sports. I don’t mean to imply that young women and girls can’t have male athletes as role models, but if they can never play a sport professionally, they are unlikely to value it in the same way as young men and boys can. At the very least, without the prospect of financial success like male athletes can have, young women and girls have less reason to be devoted to their sporting careers. This will lead to potentially excellent female athletes choosing another career path because they simply don’t have a reasonable chance to make any money doing what they love. This seems unfortunate, and more importantly, unfair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] I’m going to do my best to use ‘females’, but the leagues almost always use the term ‘women’, so I’ll use that when referencing the leagues.

[2] http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0410/top-wnba-salaries.aspx#axzz2D6NeziHP

[3] http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm

[4] http://hoopshype.com/salaries/la_lakers.htm (corroborated by http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/22/sports/la-sp-ln-la-kobe-bryant-highest-paid-nba-player-in-201213-season-20120822)

[5] They claim to be professionally run or managed, as in the league is organized by professionals.

[6] http://www.tsn.ca/canadian_hockey/story/?id=330050

[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jun/30/deborah-orr-mens-tennis-prizes

[8] http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/event_guide/prize_money.html

[9] http://www.bnpparibasopen.com/News/Tennis/2012/Pretournament/Prize-Money-Announcement.aspx

[10]http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Women+prize+money+still+lagging+behind/7054411/story.html

[11] http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/08/01/the-highest-paid-female-athletes/

[12] I don’t watch any basketball, male or female, so this is completely anecdotal.

[13] ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS

[14] http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2007/09/Issue-238/NFL-Season-Preview/NFL-Media-Rights-Deals-For-07-Season.aspx

[15] http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7353238/nfl-re-ups-tv-pacts-expand-thursday-schedule

Comments

[feminism articles]

I just can't understand why this wage inequality exit in the society, you have talked about the sports in your blog but i want to say it exists in every field and women's are being under estimated, really i don't know what's the main reason behind? can't we make certain rules so that this system can be abolished??

[Cameron]

That's a good point. I know this problem reaches well beyond sports into most, if not all, jobs. I chose to focus on sports here simply because it seems to be a particularly egregious example. I agree that this is a very serious problem and we should take all steps available to resolve it.

[3x slimming power capsule]

Which i will never at any time make my aim. I could get pregnant and afterwards just keep receiving fatter and fatter. Is not going to reduce the pregnancy %anchor% and I am going to just get fully body fat.

[Pharmd444]

Hello! geggaka interesting geggaka site! I'm really like it! Very, very geggaka good!

[Acankitahak]

Douglas estimated the volume of the substance at more than a thousand gallons. She said it was widely spread along the Wulik River and the lagoon, which is a half mile wide and six miles long. Orangey water was reported as far away as the village of Buckland, 150 miles southeast of Kivalina.A team at the lab found the spores to be unlike any they've examined, but Morton said many rust fungi in the Arctic have yet to be identified.ANCHORAGE, Alaska An orangecolored goo that streaked the shore of LaMarr Woodley White Jersey a remote Alaska Limited Michael Brockers Jersey village turned out to be fungal spores, Authentic Anthony Fasano White Jersey not millions of microscopic eggs as indicated by preliminary analysis, scientists said Thursday.Scientists have not Kids Owen Daniels Navy Jersey determined whether this spore is among the 7,800 known species of rust fungi or some kind of unknown arctic species.The substance quickly dissipated from the village lagoon and the Wulik River. But many of Kivalina's 374 residents worried about the longterm effect on Womens Corey Wootton Limited Jersey the water quality and some wildlife, fish and plants they use for food from a phenomenon they had never seen Game Michael Bush Womens Jersey before. There was a report of Mens Drew Brees Jersey dead minnows found in the lagoon Packers Jordy Nelson Pink Jersey the night the substance appeared.Rust fungus is a plant disease that creates a yellowishorange or brown discoloration on leaves and stems before Authenitc Shaun Suisham Nike Jersey eventually growing spores that spread the infection. NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said airborne spores could cause allergic reactions in humans or contribute to respiratory diseases."There were no minerals at all," he told The Associated Press.Alaska officials will discuss the mystery among state agencies to determine whether to what actions to take if a potential risk is seen, said Emanuel Hignutt, a chemist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage. White Greg Jennings Game Jersey Not knowing the exact species complicates the matter, he said.Morton said determining toxicity is beyond his area of expertise, but he "would Blue Jason Pierre-Paul Authentic Jersey definitely filter these spores out" of water sources. He said one of the tests run on the substance was to determine if there Elite Calais Campbell Nike Jersey were any mineral Malcom Floyd Womens Jersey components, such as iron."We are going have more concern from the Domenik Hixon Jersey public," she said. "If I'm concerned, then there will be others with concerns."With so much still unknown, Mitchell is determined to Chiefs Ryan Succop Elite Jersey find out how safe the community is, even if it means sending out frozen and refrigerated samples of the Womens Kevin Walter Elite Jersey substance for Youth Kevin Minter Red Jersey private testing.The gooey, slimy substance turned powdery once it dried and probably went airborne, said Kivalina Councilwoman Frances Douglas. The material was found on at least one roof and in buckets set all over the village to collect rainwater.Further tests with more advanced equipment showed the substance is consistent with spores from fungi that create rust, which accounts for the color, said officials Authentic Hakeem Nicks Blue Jersey with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The gunk appeared Aug. 3 at the edge of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo community at the tip of a barrier reef on Alaska's northwest coast."Who's to say it didn't settle to the bottom of the lagoon?" she said.City administrator Janet Mitchell said those fears will only intensify Elite William Gay Nike Jersey with the latest analysis, which did not include toxicity tests. She herself is troubled about the community's dwindling reserves in village water tanks that will need to be topped off.Orange Goo Red Tyrann Mathieu Nike Jersey At Alaska Village Was Fungal Spores

[BessuhShoteot]

Brantley has fewer weapons at his disposal than Tebow had. The loss of Cooper and Hernandez (1191,811/14) leaves Deonte Thompson as the leading holdover. Thompson will get help from the speedy Andre DeBose and the bigbodied Carl Moore. Slotback Chris Rainey caught only 10 passes last year, and he will have to quadruple that mark this year for the Gators to be successful.J. The SEC has produced the last four national champions and five in the past decade, compared to two from the Big 12, one Pink Vincent Jackson Limited Jersey from the Big Ten, one from the Pac10, and one from the Big East. Not since Georgia in 2005 has the SEC Champion not played in the BCS National Championship Game.The Gators have strength at defensive tackle thanks to the return of Omar Hunter and Jaye Howard. Very few teams will run the ball up the middle against them. Meyer recruited a lot of grade A dline talent, and three could see immediate action as true freshmen. Keep an eye on Ronald Powell and Sharrif Floyd. Jones is the lone starter returning at Blue Chris Long Limited Jersey linebacker. Jones Nike Devin Hester Youth Jersey plays the run and the pass well, but UF will be weaker in the second line of defense.One coach finds himself on a hot seat that he may not be able to cool down. One coach is on a mildly warm seat due to fans that have ridiculously high and impossible standards. One coach may want to hang it up at the end of this year after many years in the business. One coach already decided to get out, leaving just before August practices began. It is possible that four jobs in the elite Nike Patrick Peterson Authenitc Jersey conference will be available after the season.The running game will need more production from real backs, because Brantley will run much less than Tebow. Rainey will team with Chris Demps and Emmanuel Moody to carry the load. Expect the trio to top 1,800 rushing yards this year.Georgia faced a key game in week two, when they visit South Carolina. The winner will get a chance to play for the division title later in the season against Florida, while Elite Philip Rivers Nike Jersey the loser will be out of the race.The Gators went 131 last year, and Kids Julio Jones Game Jersey it was considered a major disappointment. The team that returned almost every starter from a national championship was expected to go Nike Lamarr Houston Limited Jersey 140 Game Brandon Stokley Purple Jersey and become the next 2001 Miami, 1995 Nebraska, 1971 Nebraska, and 1945 Army in college football.Emmanuel MoodyIt is ridiculous that many Georgia fans want to get rid of Coach Mark Richt, when he just guided the Bulldogs to the most successful decade in their history. Vince Dooley did not post 10consecutive seasons as victorious as the decade Richt produced in Athens. Pay close attention to what happened in Minnesota when Glen Mason was fired.At running back, Washaun Ealey played in the final nine games and rushed for Eagles Lane Johnson Pink Jersey 717 yards. Caleb King added 594 yards. Both have a combination of power and speed and can Elite Anquan Boldin Jersey hit anywhere on the line of scrimmage.If Murray is worth his salt Kids Sean Weatherspoon Black Jersey as a passer, he will have a lot of weapons at his disposal. Green White Kyle Rudolph Vikings Jersey has allAmerican potential after grabbing 53 passes for 808 yards in Red Asante Samuel Youth Jersey an injuryplagued season. Tavarres King and Orson Charles should both top 40 receptions. Former quarterback Logan Gray moves to Rams Tavon Austin Youth Jersey receiver, where he should contribute this year.Editorial aside, Georgia has another fine team this season. 10 starters return on the offensive side; the one position that needs to be filled just happens to be at quarterback. Richt has basically one option here. Redshirt freshman Aaron Murray has the job from day one, because true freshman Hutson Mason is the only Limited Jason Witten Youth Jersey real backup.We are going to predict this trend ends this season, but not without a lot of controversy. We believe the SEC Champion, like all the other five BCS Conference champions will lose at least one game. As we have stated in earlier previews, we believe both Boise State and TCU will win all their games and meet in Glendale for the rubber match bowl game.The offensive line returns all five starters from last season, and this quintet ranks second nationally to Wisconsin's line.In the last five seasons, Georgia gave up 16.4, 17.6, 20.2, 24.5, and 25.9 points per game. This annual deterioration has led to a change at defensive coordinator. Enter NFL veteran Todd Grantham, and enter the 34 defense.Brandon Boykin is the only returning starter in the secondary, and there isn't much experience taking the place of the three departed starters. Look for the 'Dogs to give up more passing yards this year.We are a bit concerned about the new front three, as nose guard DeAngelo Tyson is not the answer there for a 34 front. Former offensive lineman Justin Anderson may eventually take over in the interior. At 330 pounds, he is better suited to growing roots over center.Quarterback John Brantley completed 36 of 48 passes for 410 yards and seven touchdowns with no interceptions in mopup situations last year. Not a real Limited Ziggy Ansah Youth Jersey dualthreat runner like Tebow, he will set up in the pocket White Malcolm Jenkins Womens Jersey and throw downfield. Remember, Meyer won a national title here with Chris Leak doing the same thing.Note: The PiRate Ratings are not meant to be used to predict the outcome of future games. They are usable only as a basis for the current week's games. We do not use these ratings to make our selections. They are only a starting point. The predictions given below, as for every college conference and NFL division, are not taken from the ratings themselves.If the new defensive line can keep blockers away from the UGa linebackers, the defense will have a chance to improve for the first time in five years. Watch for Justin Houston to become a fixture in opponents' backfields. He could register double figure sacks and 20+ tackles for loss.Losing three defensive players who Elite James Laurinaitis Rams Jersey were drafted in the 1st two rounds of the NFL Draft and two other players in later rounds, UF will be a little weaker on this side of the ball, but not too much weaker to miss out on a return trip to a BCS Bowl.The offensive line returns four talented blockers, including Authenitc Cameron Heyward Nike Jersey allAmerican center Mike Pouncey and 65, 360pound guard Carl Johnson.Florida must play Alabama in the regular season at Tuscaloosa on October 2. They will probably face the Tide in Atlanta two months later in a rematch game.The secondary will be strong once again with the return of two starters and several talented letterwinners. Enemy quarterbacks will throw away from cornerback Janoris Jenkins.Head Coach Urban Meyer briefly stepped down only to come back a few days later. Red DeAngelo Hall Kids Jersey Unfortunately, Tim Tebow, Riley Cooper, Aaron Hernandez, Ryan Stamper, Joe Haden, Brandon Spikes, Dustin Doe, and Carlos Dunlap don't have the option of coming back. The Gators lost nine players to the NFL. How can they possibly still be considered the top contender in the SEC East? Simple: they still have the best overall talent in the division.

[vmoibxl]

[url=http://www.sajjassolar.com/en/cheap_ncaa_football_jerseys.html]wholesale ncaa jerseys[/url] fire gunning.A put on asmiling of improbity idea to appear the true tree mouth is on the village side, lightly spread a palm, neither more nor less appeared three warheads in the center of palm.This thing is yours?The smiling of improbity idea is thicker, the true tree hopes 3 people and smiles a

[url=http://www.swanderfulmusic.com/shop/custom_mlb_jerseys.html]cheap mlb jerseys[/url] boundary.Can also comprehend like this yes, person's boundary is the general livingcreatures can arrive, and can therein exist of keep a view world.The cold E says with smile:Start to compare person's boundary, the empty boundary seemed to be vague.A certain star area, a certain macrocosm, can be

[url=http://www.oldvillagefurniture.com/shop/authentic_nhl_jerseys.html]authentic nhl jerseys[/url] the moment, each kind of battleplane of blood-sucking vampire is taking turns and moor at the battleship of the sea surfaces to the G country navy and carry on without a break bombing, thousands of Gao Bao Guang plays,

[url=http://www.desiretours.net/Cheap+authentic+jerseys.html]Cheap authentic jerseys[/url] who?Add 100:This matteris very important, so I decide the champion regiment tornado mercenary soldier of the Wei 託 this mercenary soldier martial meeting regiment, and you and reach to add is the gainer of saint hall 勳 chapter, I also hope youThe ability is that the saint hall offer penny dint,

[url=http://www.iwaresolutions.net/cheap/cheap_fitted_hats.html]wholesale new era hats[/url] totalbenefit meeting director compare Si, really is Huo in the house of a has a good head.In two of her's eyes compare Si although not the elephant boon Lai section be full of intelligence so, once having once the troublesome boon Lai section brain turn, can create a kind of all sorts of strange

[url=http://www.theforgotten.org/shop/cheap_mlb_jerseys.html]replica mlb jerseys[/url] heart of boon Lai section suddenly and fiercely on jumping, if show prince's his highness the martial skill that the Li pulls, want to make him not be suspicious, perhaps very difficult.The Li pulls, there is guest.The boon Lai section raises voice to say, he became overdoto smile to smile to

[url=http://www.hillingtongreen.com/cheap_nba_jerseys.aspx]cheap nba jerseys paypal[/url] of that red of piece of stone, reflect to project one soft ray of light.That front door is to freeze stone to chisel and carve a dozen to whet with the translucent red but become, far and far see go to seem to is a piece of changeablered cloud, take shape then inset here with a certain and

[url=http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/china_nfl_jerseys.html]wholesale china nfl jerseys[/url] boon Lai, she shook to shake head and slowly said:I know that you don't believe, however this is the fact.As I see it, your mother neglected homely resistance in those early years and insisted on and chose thatyour father does her husband, this demand how big courage.The boon Lai section marvels a

[url=http://www.home-interiors.net/authentic_nhl_jerseys.html]home-interiors.net/authentic_nhl_jerseys.html[/url] seven black balls, this to her plan, also far far not enough, however thin Anna doesn't dare to stop over toolong, once warned her in the dream world, will have the order that a group of persons receives a total to search survival weapon, if suffer with them up, her scheme will immediately expose.

[url=http://artifela.com/b12/nfl-drift-jerseys.html]NFL premier drift Jerseys Wholesale[/url] widely a cowfoolish a foolish, unbearable loudly call way:Eldest brother, you true cow!Naturally station in a sea of clouds, whole body glory four shoot, hear the words of opening widely the cow, not from look

[url=http://www.harleemanor.com/shop/cheap_ncaa_football_jerseys.html]cheap ncaa jerseys[/url] being Wu Zhe whom I call, tremendous irony again.The Pan that those two young men lead escapes the troops threatening force is the mosthuge, the number is more and more, have the trend to outstrip the former around around unclearly, their methods want to be vigorous many, assault alone troops of

[url=http://www.desiretours.net/img/cheap_baseball_caps.html]nba snapbacks[/url] to be jealous for the sake of her, mother of, calculate Lao Tze to seem somesuffer a los.2 people about to speak Jiang to begin and suddenly listen to someone loudly drink a way:Do you want to do what?Is still not away with it?Is exactly the tiger person's Tang De Ce's horse to be walked, his Nu

[gamma blue 11s]

I am a high heels bringer! Especially throughout workweek in the workplace, Irrrve never put dull gamma blue 11s. I gained many of these and I've truly put these products considerably more in the last couple weeks when compared with any one of the actual bebe gamma blue 11s or perhaps water pumps! How's that for proclaiming a process. I enjoy this program these types gamma blue 11s! They're just signifigantly superb tiny hard working, belch including, ping pong having fun with your feet!