{"id":54,"date":"2021-11-10T18:05:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T18:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.journalism.ryerson.ca\/madisonkelly\/?p=54"},"modified":"2021-12-06T18:49:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T18:49:20","slug":"the-gender-wage-gap-in-sports-is-still-alive-and-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/2021\/11\/10\/the-gender-wage-gap-in-sports-is-still-alive-and-well\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gender Wage Gap In Sports Is Still Alive And Well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Female athletes earn significantly lower incomes than their male counterparts even when playing the same sport.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gender wage gap, otherwise known as the pay gap, is a difference in income between genders and span across all occupations. Yet, the wage gap in sports is and has been much higher than the average profession.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sport to Sport&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even within certain sports, the gender wage gap differs dramatically.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In tennis, the wage gap isn\u2019t as substantial. The highest-paid male athlete of 2021 was Roger Federer, who netted $84 million and made 1.68 times the income than his female counterpart Naomi Osaka, who made $50 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, in basketball, the wage gap is significantly different as the highest-paid NBA player for the 2021 season was Stephen Curry, who raked in a whopping $45.8 million, which is 206 times the amount the highest-paid female WNBA players Sue Bird, Liz Cambage, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith, DeWanna Bonner, &amp; Elena Delle Donne made who all reached the maximum salary cap of $221 450.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WNBA All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkyDigg4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SkyDigg4<\/a>&#39;s true life story makes the case for closing the gender pay gap in professional sports.<\/p>&mdash; Wealthsimple (@Wealthsimple) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Wealthsimple\/status\/1170430285218844672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 7, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption>The gender wage gap in sports with a video of two kids demonstrating the differences (Tweet from @wealthsimple)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Soccer is another sport that has a similar difference between pay. The top earner for men was Cristiano Ronaldo profited $125 million, which is 241 times more than the two-time gold medal female Olympian Carli Lloyd who earned $518 000.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two of the lowest income sports for women compared to men are baseball and hockey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year, NHL\u2019s top earner was Edmonton Oilers team captain Connor McDavid, who netted $15 million compared to his counterpart olympian Kelli Stack who profited $25 000; McDavid earned 600 times more than Stack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it drastically worsens MLB as Trevor Bauer of the Los Angeles Dodgers cashed in $40 million. In comparison, National Pro Fastpitch softball league\u2019s player Monica Abbott only made $20 000, which is 2000 times less than Bauer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"573\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-573x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-573x1024.png 573w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-168x300.png 168w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-768x1372.png 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-860x1536.png 860w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/pay-gap_56656085-1147x2048.png 1147w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 573px) 100vw, 573px\" \/><figcaption>Infographic on the different stats of the gender pay gap in sports (Madison Kelly\/NNS 512)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Is This?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Media and marketing play a significant role in how viewers perceive and decide what to watch in sports. Large media corporations have the power to determine what sports get the most air time and advertisements.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Female sports only make up 4.7 per cent of the sports coverage compared to male sports, which dominate the amount of coverage by 95 per cent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously women athletes used to be among the top earners. Yet, throughout the past 25 years, major sports news corporations have spent billions of dollars on live television coverage for male sports, leading to a surge in players\u2019 salaries, according to Forbes Magazine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You make those that say they stand for women actually stand up. The NBA wasn\u2019t always the global game that it is today. It wasn\u2019t always driving as much revenue as it does today. But there were people behind it, building the platform, and more importantly telling INDIVIDUAL&#8230;<\/p>&mdash; Draymond Green (@Money23Green) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Money23Green\/status\/1375884131486244864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 27, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption>How the NBA didn&#8217;t get big until media corporations started putting money into it (Tweet from @Money23Green)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The distribution of earnings is also another reason why the pay gap is extreme.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"738\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo-1024x738.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo-1024x738.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo-300x216.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo-768x553.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo-1536x1106.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2021\/11\/08mag-wnba-promo-superJumbo.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>WNBA Atalanta Dream Players Alex Bentley, Renee Montgomery and Tiffany Hayes (Djeneba Aduayom\/New York times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Within basketball, the NBA and WNBA provide their players with different percentages from their total earnings. For example, the WNBA only pays their athletes 23 per cent of the total revenue they earn, whereas the NBA pays their players more than 50 percent of the total income earned, according to Bard College.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">W<strong>hat Needs To Be Done<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Media corporations and sports organizations need to promote both female and male sports more equally by providing the same amount of coverage. Female athletes and women around the world will continue to keep fighting until they see equal pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Female athletes earn significantly lower incomes than their male counterparts even when playing the same sport.&nbsp; The gender wage gap, otherwise known as the pay gap, is a difference in income between genders and span across all occupations. Yet, the wage gap in sports is and has been much higher than the average profession.&nbsp; Sport [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":58,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assignments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/madisonkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}