Woman in sports get paid less than men

By: Alyssia P.

       Could you imagine doing the same work just to get less pay? Women in sports get paid 200% less than men in sports. There is so much work that needs to be done in fixing the gender pay gap. 

       In a recent interview with Kendell Conyne Schofeild, she pointed out that women's hockey has no pro league to play in after college. Kendall is also forced to be a head hockey coach because she isn’t making enough money on her semi-pro hockey team even though she is the highest paid player on her team. Growing up, Kendell knew hockey would be unfair in the fact that she is a woman. She knew this because she was the only girl on her childhood team. Kendall believes, “if women got the same resources as the NHL, it would be a great start for women to have the same benefits as men.”  Some of the benefits men have over women are sponsors, health care, and health insurance. For example, USA hockey offers two kinds of health insurance for men. Men also still earn money when they are hurt; they could even be earning their whole salary.  Overall, hockey has one of the biggest pay gaps and isn’t doing anything to help close it.         

       In an interview with the USA Women's Hockey team they spoke out about all the hard work they do just to be paid unfairly. The six time world champions speak out about how they cannot afford to play hockey as a full time job because they aren't getting enough pay. “We are asking for a living wage and for USA hockey to fully support its programs for women and girls and to stop treating us like an afterthought,” captain Meghan Duggan said, according to ESPN. “We have represented our country with dignity and deserve to be treated with fairness and respect.” This quote from Meghan Duggan expresses her feelings toward the gender pay gap in the fact that ESPN thinks they deserve to be treated with fairness and respect from not only USA hockey, but also from fans of hockey. The USA women's hockey team also protested the 2017 World Championship because of the lack of respect and fairness the league claims to be giving them. The league has come out and said they are making changes to close the gap, but the players are not seeing the effect. Hockey to this day has the biggest gender pay gap.

       Hockey isn’t the only sport that has an outrageous gap in pay. Basketball does too. The average yearly salary for an NBA player is $8.3 million dollars. The yearly salary for a WNBA player is only $75,181. The website Goal Five states that, “The highest-paid women's basketball player has earned less than the lowest-paid National Basketball Association player.” There is a 200% pay gap between men and women basketball players. Stephen Curry makes $50 million dollars a year and isn’t the highest paid men’s player. But take into perspective that Jackie Young is the highest paid women's basketball player making only $252,450. The WNBA is also not giving women the same perks as men. 

       One of the main reasons that the WNBA is suffering is the fact that they are not getting the same perks as men. These include media, the hype, the sponsorships, and sports coverage. Sports coverage is one of the main issues in the WNBA. Women only are getting 0.4% coverage compared to men. Media coverages aren’t giving women the same opportunities to earn money because they are not covering them. One example of this is in the 2023-24 college basketball season when six out of seven major newspapers had less than half of their stories about women's college basketball. The Chicago Tribune, on the other hand, had none.    Nneka Ogwumike, a WNBA player, also says that players feel that if they spoke out against the unfairness the league wouldn't make any changes. For example, a quote from the WNBA states, “It's not something we're thinking about at all. I know that's what comes to people minds that are not inside negotiations, but strike, lockout, that's nothing of any concern for us because that's not our goal.” This is showing that the WNBA is not planning to make any changes even when the players have spoken out against the unfairness.   

       Women's soccer is also affected dramatically by the gender pay gap. “Currently the male and female average salaries differ by 25% in international soccer and 2000% in club soccer.” Women in 2015 won the World Cup and only got paid two million dollars. But on the other hand, the men's team lost in the first round and got paid eight million dollars. As of today the highest paid women's soccer player, Alex Morgan, is getting paid $7.1 million. While the highest paid mens player, Cristiano Ronaldo, is getting paid $260 million.  Female soccer players are only making 25 cents to a male soccer player’s every dollar. Women's soccer players are affected each and every day with the amount of pay they are getting, or in this case, not getting. 

       Tennis stands out as being one of the few sports that is making a difference in the gender pay gap. As of today, the top ten highest paid women in sports are all tennis players. The U.S. Open, Australian Open, and French Open all pay their male and female athletes equal prize money. Men’s yearly income is 18% more than women's, but at least tennis is trying to make a difference and is one of the only sports that is doing so.  

       Women are working just as hard as men to get paid unfairly. There's so much work that needs to be done in fixing the almost 200% gender gap in pay. At least some sports organizations are trying to end the unfairness that continues to this day. As we move towards more gender equality in sports, then it would level the playing field for all children in the future.