The Truth About Gender Pay Gaps in Sports
- Allie Lorton
- Dec 13, 2020
- 3 min read
Sports are universal. At least they are supposed to be. Communities are made around a common shared love for a team, and lines are drawn between those who support your rivals. But, for those competing, there are still inequalities and challenges they are trying to overcome. For the FIFA World Cup, the U.S men’s team who lost in the first round received pay of 8 million dollars. The women’s team on the other hand who won the World Cup received 2 million dollars, just ¼ of the men’s team (see figure 1.a). So, why are gender pay gaps in professional athletics so big?
1.a
From an economic standpoint, businesses operate based on profit. The more money you make, the more “successful” the business is. For sports organizations like the NBA, USTA, or PGA, they make most of their profit from TV deals, ticket sales, and sponsorships with different brands to represent different teams/ players. For athletes, most of their money comes from salary and endorsements with their specific sponsors. While looking at the Forbes list of the highest-paid athletes in 2020, which takes into account both salary and endorsements, you won’t find a single woman between 1-28. #29 is Naomi Osaka, one of the world’s best tennis players. From salary, she makes 3.4 million and brings in the last 34 million dollars from endorsements. Compared to #1 on the list, male tennis player Rodger Federer who makes 6.3 million from salary and 100 million from endorsements. His salary almost doubles what Naomi Osaka makes even though they are both some of the highest-ranking players in tennis. You can find Serena Williams, another female tennis player at #33, but you won’t see another female in the list. Interestingly enough, when looking at specifically the top paid female athletes in the world, you will see that 9 of 10 play tennis. So what makes tennis so special?
First off, tennis is an individual sport (unless you are playing doubles). So, when you are playing, it’s all eyes on you and your opponent. This makes it easier for you to be a household name. For example, the name Serena Williams has more of a ring to it than Maya Moore (a WNBA player) because one name out of two is easier to remember than 1/10. Hence, recognizable names like Serena Williams get endorsements from companies like Nike because what she does with them will sell.
Additionally, when looking at the profit made between different organizations, it becomes clear just how much of an economic gap there is.
The NBA brings in almost 7 billion dollars more than the WNBA and has an average salary 89.34 times the size of the WNBA. But, the NBA also has 65.54 times the average viewers. So, clearly, the pay gap between the two organizations is there but so is the viewership which in turn makes their revenue less. So, it’s not necessarily that organizations are purposely paying them less or blatant sexism from the organizations, it is that the organizations don’t have as much money to spend on salary for the athletes. This is further expanded in team sports, as there are far more athletes being paid. If you had 20 dollars to give 2 friends (like tennis), each person would get 10 dollars, but 20 dollars for 20 people (a team sport), each person would only get one dollar.
To combat this, we must ask these questions:
How can we make female athletes bigger household names?
This will allow them to get more endorsements and develop their own brands.
i.e. Serena Williams doing a collaboration show with Nike and Off White
How can we get rid of the stigma and sexism around women’s sports to drive up viewership? How can we create a buzz around women’s sports?
This will allow organizations to make more money from television deals and get higher attendance to games.
How can we encourage companies to give more endorsement deals to female athletes?
Once again will help close the pay gap and allow female athletes to create their own brands.
Overall, to eliminate gender pay gaps in professional sports, we need to get rid of the stigma and getting more people to watch and join the communities in women’s athletics. When this happens, the economic gap between the organizations will begin to close, which will allow them to pay their athletes higher, and more female athletes will receive endorsements as popularity = money in the sports world. So, let’s work together to make this change and close the gap.
Citations:
“The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Forbes, 2020, www.forbes.com/athletes/#15d0044255ae. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
“NBA vs WNBA: Revenue, Salaries, Attendance, Ratings.” World Sports Network, 21 Oct. 2020, www.wsn.com/nba/nba-vs-wnba/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Barrett-Syracuse, Michele. “Few Female Athletes Get Endorsement Deals - Futurity.” Futurity, 28 Aug. 2012, www.futurity.org/few-female-athletes-get-endorsement-deals/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
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