why should professional athletes be paid less
In 2010, golfer Tiger Woods made 124% more than tennis player Maria Sharapova. As John Thelin, PhD, Research Professor of History of Higher Education & Public Policy at the University of Kentucky, explained, paying salaries to players will increase [athletic] program expenditures without necessarily increasing revenues [and] a handful of powerful programs will stand to gain in competition for athletic talent simply because they can afford to pay salaries. For years, another major difference in compensation came in the form of revenue sharing. Professional sports revenues are rapidly increasing because of the seemingly insatiable appetites for unique TV programs. If it is closed by the federation in negotiations with both teams, the change could funnel millions of dollars to a new generation of womens national team players. Excluding men's star Roger Federer, elite female tennis players compare very well with their male counterparts in terms of endorsement earnings. The 2020 agreement was also a big step forward in terms of WNBA players salary potential. As of June 10, 2021, 18 states have passed NIL laws; five more states have passed bills that were awaiting the governors signature to become law; 14 states have introduced NIL bills; and one state has a bill passed by the Senate and awaiting a House vote, according to the Business of College Sports. Tennis is one of the few sports where the United States women, on average, make more than men. So if you think pro athletes make too much money, maybe you should stop watching them. Since then, the womens team has won four FIFA Womens World Cup titles. Plus, we tend to forget that published professional athletes salaries are gross salaries. Top U.S. mens player: Andy Roddick, $2,187,719, Top U.S. mens player: John Isner, $411,414, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $1,484,559, Top U.S. womens player: Serena Williams, $4,266,011, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $307,343, Top U.S. womens player: Sofia Kenin, $3,012,043. In 2018, the average annual salary for an M.L.B. Others also argue that. Fox Sports say the pool-play game versus Chile had record viewership for a Women's World Cup group-stagematch. Do Professional Athletes Get Paid Too Much Money? According to the NCAA, the organization provides more than $3.6 billion in athletic scholarships annually to more than 180,000 student-athletes. Divided equitably, each student would receive about $20,000 per year. I am an editorial consumer intern reporting on sports and b-schools. As Jon Solomon, Editorial Director for the Sports and Society Program at the Aspen Institute explained, The most glaring example occurred when the University of North Carolina was found by outside parties to have organized fake classes that enabled dozens of athletes to gain and maintain their eligibility of the 3,100 students who took the fake classes over 18 years, 47.4 percent were athletes North Carolina avoided NCAA penalties by essentially arguing that the NCAA should stay out of irregularities in college courses. [24] The NCAA polices athletes finances but does not ensure a quality education. Consider the pro position of the National College Players Association that paying college athletes is a civil rights issue. Examining the Gender Pay Gap in Sports | Salary.com However, do these athletes really deserve all that money? These infamous players must grow up, and prove to America that they can be positive role models for kids on and off the field. Women used to rank more prominently among the top-earning athletes, butover the past 25 years, media companies have spent billions on TV deals for live sports content. When basketball player Stephen Curry signed a new contract with the Golden State Warriors in 2017,jaws dropped at his salary: a whopping $201million over five years. The team filed a complaint against U.S. Soccer in March that states: Female WNT players would earn a maximum of $99,000 or $4,950 per game, while similarly situated male MNT players would earn an average of $263,320 or $13,166 per game. The players claim they face discrimination when it comes to where and how often they play, how they train and travel, the medical treatment and coaching they receive, and obviously their salaries. Athletes are paid huge sums of money to play sports. Which of these groups do you think played a role in pushing U.S. Soccer to equalize pay? Explain your answer. [29] [30], Further, most college programs do not generate the income needed to run their athletic programs, much less pay athletes. Why professional athletes are actually underpaid - Sports Illustrated Aside from federal, state and city taxes and pension, which everyone pays, players also need to pay agent fees, a $10,000 union due, and aJock Taxfor each of their away games, among others. Those who need reminding that women generally get paid less than men for doing the same work got it on Tuesday. The NCAA is seemingly the final authority to decide whether college athletes should be paid to play college sports. 1, 2021], Jessica Gresko, High Court Agrees to Hear NCAA Athlete Compensation Case, nsjonline.com, Dec. 16, 2020, Daniel Roberts, Poll: 60% of Americans Support College Athletes Getting Paid Endorsements, finance.yahoo.com, Oct. 8, 2019, NCPA, NCAA Refusal to Vote on NIL Pay Is Slap in the Face to Athletes, ncpanow.org, Jan. 11, 2021, Bloomberg, The NCAA Raked in Over $1 Billion Last Year, fortune.com, Mar. College athletes may also play a second sport professionally and be compensated, such as Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker who earned a $1.4 million baseball signing bonus from the Colorado Rockies in 2010 while still playing football for the Tigers. In 2020, the league difference in rookie pay decreased by 50% (down from 154%), while the salary budget gap closed by 22%. (While thats still a lot, its not nearly as much as their top-level teammates earn.) The ruling changed the broadcast regulations for college football. Is it all about defense or does winning have more to do with offense? 2021, the NCAA was composed of [n]early half a million college athletes [who] make up the 19,886 teams that send more than 57,661 participants to compete each year in the NCAAs 90 championships in 24 sports across 3 divisions. [1] [2], The NCAA is seemingly the final authority to decide whether college athletes should be paid to play college sports. In fiscal year 2019, the collective expenses of the 65 Power Five schoolsthe largest and richest Division I schools in the NCAAexceeded revenue by $7 million. In simpler terms, that means that despite currently being recognized as one of the biggest busts of all time, and even if he were to get injured tomorrow and never play again, he will still have $31 million in the bank. There are a variety of reasons why some people believe professional athletes should be paid less. Source: Forbes (men 2010, 2019; women 2010, 2019). This pay gap creates unnecessary tensions within sport teams and is unfair to teammates who sacrifice just as much but for less money. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, stated, traditions alone cannot justify the NCAAs decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated. What are sports like at your school? NBA players receive about 50% of the leagues revenues. The average American woman earns 81% of what an average American man earns, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tiger Woods, along with many other professional athletes, certainly think so. More significant, though, is that players put their bodies in danger daily. Last modified on March 27, 2023. Was this the outcome you expected? They shouldn't have to become Maxim models to prove their worth. Some of it comes from fans who shell out big bucks for costly game tickets and hugely overpriced snacks at stadiums and arenas, and for hoodies and hats with their favorite teams logo. For example, a student athlete will be compensated for the sale of a jersey featuring their name, or for a sponsorship deal in which they appear wearing a UNC jersey. 3, 2021), National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Tuition Costs of Colleges and Universities, nces.gov, 2019, NCAA, Finances of Intercollegiate Athletics, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. The Bottom Line: While it seems like theres no way to stop such inflated salaries of professional athletes, the repercussions could cause long-term damage to professional sports. 7, 2018, Steve Berkowitz, NCAA President Mark Emmert Credited with $2.7 Million in Total Pay for 2018 Calendar Year, usatoday.com, June 2, 2020, USA Today, NCAA Salaries, usatoday.com, Nov. 17, 2020, Ian McMahan, Athletes Are Paying the Physical Price of Playing College Sports, si.com, Oct. 31, 2017, Azmatullah Hussaini and Jules Lipoff, Op-Ed: COVID-19 Is Making the NCAAs Exploitation of Student-Athletes Even More Obvious, latimes.com, June 23, 2020, Meghan Walsh, 'I Trusted 'Em': When NCAA Schools Abandon Their Injured Athletes, theatlantic.com, May 1, 2013, Jon Solomon, The History Behind the Debate over Paying NCAA Athletes, aspeninstitute.org, Apr. This quote suggests the importance of teachers in our society, rendering the fact they should be paid more than professional athletes. Of the 36,011 college baseball players, only 8,002 are eligible to play professionally each year. If Alex Rodriguez earns the same amount of money as it would take tofeed the nation's poor for a year, he cant cheat and take steroids. Tuition shortfalls amount to thousands of dollars per year and leave about 85% of players to live below the poverty line. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). They give out 13 scholarships. Gender equity in tennis has been in the spotlight for decades, stretching back beyond Billie Jean Kings threat to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open. Each league and sports organization has its own structure of compensation and benefits. They also have the celebrity effect, which draws more paying fans in. of footballs highest-paid players, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, just signed a four-year contract for $134 million. Women athletes work just as hard as men. The American League and now the National League both use designated hitters. Bill gates paid 114.16 every second and athletes get paid 20 million per season, they both work hard for their money. While President Obama is hard at work reviving the economy, the unproven rookie in the MLB is earning way over that figure. U.S. Soccer and Womens Players Agree to Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit, ice hockey Olympic gold medalists, Canadian soccer pros and W.N.B.A. Male vs Female Professional Sports Salary Comparison Things improve when men and . We'll have to wait and see what. By far the most ubiquitous solution is paying college athletes. THAT'S IT! Group licensing deals in theory can allow lesser-known players to reap the benefits of appearing alongside a well-known player. Obviously, what these individuals must not be aware of is the most important man in our nation, the president, who makes critical decisions that affect the entire world every day, only makes $400,000 a year. In 2018-19, the federation reported total revenue of $115,128,170, a growth of 160% over the last decade. Thirty-eight members of the women's national team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation last March, accusing the federation of failing to promote gender equality. Sources: CareerTrend (NPF); ESPN (PGA & LPGA); Global Sports Salaries (MLB, MLS, NBA, WNBA); NWSLSoccer.com (NWSL); Tennis.com (ATP; WTA). Explain your answer(s). Is this for the better? However, with fans willing to paymore than 100% premiumson tickets to see individual players, likeLeBron James, franchise players have extra responsibility to live up to their star power. In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was, The large amounts of money invested in professional sports in recent years has the potential to drain the true meaning from sports. [45], On June 30, 2021, fewer than 12 hours before some states NIL laws went into effect, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors issued an interim ruling stating that Bylaw 12 (the rules that say athletes cannot receive payment) will not be enforced. Both are undoubted NBA legends, but which of the two has been a bigger winner? And ever since that 1984 decision, courts have been relying on that language to try to interpret antitrust law applies to all NCAA restrictions, including player compensation. [15], On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA cannot ban certain payments to student athletes under the premise of maintaining amateurism. are the three biggest sports organizations in the U.S. Its about $56,000for a schoolteacher and nearly $74,000 for an emergency room nurse. [ 3] So if you think pro athletes make too much money, maybe you should stop watching them. [25] [26], If college players earned about 50% of their teams revenues like the NFL and NBA players do, the average football players yearly salary would be $360,000 and the average basketball players yearly salary would be $500,000. Two Sides to Every Coin: Are Professional Athletes Overpaid? Does it make any sense that someone who throws a football for a living is paid more than 700 times as much as someone who helps save peoples lives, or that swinging a bat gets you nearly 650 times as much as educating kids? This is about small changes the league can make that will impact the players. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. Face Off: Should female athletes make as much as their male While the highest paid athletes draw more attention, the truth is thatmost athletes are fairly paid. In 2019, little had changed: soccer star Lionel Messi made 125% more than tennis star Serena Williams. That equaled the prize money for a single winning mens team a decade earlier. do professional athletes deserve their inflated salaries? But between particular sports, there are vast discrepancies in pay for men and women, ranging from tennis, where pay is comparable, to basketball, where players are in entirely different zip codes. ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. The most important thing here is that we are moving forward, and we are moving forward together.. A handful of big sports. Tennis players are the only female athletes to rank among the overall top earners over the past decade, with Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Li Na all having appeared multiple times onForbes list. World's top-ranked female tennis player Simona Halep's off-court earnings came in at $1.5m last year, dwarfed by Roger Federer, currently men's number two, who pocketed $58m. Next, some MLB players will earn more in one game than the average American household makes in 10 years. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average total cost of public college (tuition, fees, room, and board) for the 201718 academic year was $17,797. [46], The University of North Carolina became the first school to organize group licensing deals for student athletes in July 2021. Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. Opinion: Women athletes do not deserve equal pay | HS Insider Major League Baseball is a $10 billion-in-revenue giant while the NPF players make an average of $5,000 to $6,000 because of the league's low revenue. As professional sporting brings in a ridiculous amount of money in general, we should find a way to invest more in our female athletes and pay them the same as their male counterparts. And sport marketers can attract more fans to a league or player, increasing revenue and support. Why hasn't anything changed? The compensation for professional athletes differs from traditional pay because, Matheson said, fans have limited choices compared to other industries - a phenomenon known as "superstar. Should college athletes be paid? Judge Judy makes about $45 million per year. Every year since the Womens National Basketball Associations inaugural season in 1997, the highest-paid womens basketball player has earned less than the lowest-paid National Basketball Association player. Men's sports receive vastly more media coverage, television licenses, and sponsorship deals, which contribute to higher revenue. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. In fact, some pro athletes in minor league baseballdont even make minimum wage. Midfielder Lindsey Horan celebrates with forward, Megan Rapinoe after scoring a goal during the 2019 Women's World Cup on June 20, 2019. Divisions II and III of the NCAA followed suit and the changes went into effect for all three divisions on July 1, 2021. Are pro athletes overpaid. Are Professional Athletes Overpaid Among the 10 highest-paid female athletes in 2018, nine were tennis players. Adelphi University respects your right to privacy. It is true that on average, female athletes are paid far less than male athletes.
why should professional athletes be paid less