In recent years, people have started paying more attention to the wage disparity between males and females in the workplace. This has been a topic of concern for many years, but it’s becoming an even more crucial issue as society continues to change. Recently, people have started thinking about the pay gap between male and female athletes. Is it fair that a male athlete makes significantly more money than an elite female athlete?
Some Sports Have Larger Pay Gaps
It’s important to recognize that the pay gap is more substantial in some sports than it is for others. For instance, basketball has an extremely large pay gap between male and female athletes. Other sports, such as tennis, don’t have that much of a pay gap at all. Tennis seems to be the one sport where top females are capable of earning money comparable to the top males in the sport.
There are also instances of certain female athletes earning high wages in other sports. Ronda Rousey was a big draw for the UFC during her time there, and she made more money than most fighters while she was on top. Things aren’t as easy for women who play team sports, though. Most women in team sports make substantially less money than their male counterparts.
Revenue Differences
In most sports, the female sports leagues are not very popular in comparison to the male sports leagues. The WNBA has very low viewership when compared to the NBA, and the revenue of the WNBA could not stack up to the male league. This lack of revenue has a lot to do with why female athletes don’t make as much money as most male athletes. There are some instances where revenue increases haven’t caused female athletes to be paid more, though.
The U.S. women’s soccer team has earned more revenue than the men’s soccer team. Despite this, the income disparity is still present. Even female professional wrestlers generally make substantially less money than the men do even though they have become a big part of the success of those organizations. Pay differences in sports will continue to be a hot issue, and many want the pay gap to disappear entirely as soon as possible.