Today marks the official kickoff of the WNBA basketball season. From pre-season sellouts has save viewsthe spotlight is on WNBA. While the media is full of predictions, records and highlights about WNBA players, the topic of equal pay has also taken center stage.
Just weeks after ending her career as a college basketball star, Caitlin Clark is once again the center of attention – just like her. rookie contract. Clark’s contract currently leaves her a small fraction of the millions her male counterparts have made, despite making history as the NCAA Division I leading scorer and being the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft.
Under the collective bargaining agreement, Clark will only make a little over $300,000 over his four-year contract. Even with endorsements and partnership deals, Clark will only make a little over $3 million over the next four years. In comparison, the previous year, Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, earned a Four-year, $55 million contract.
The issue of salary inequalities in sport is unfortunately not new. For yearsWomen in major sports have been grossly underpaid and vilified when speaking out about pay disparities. From football to basketball, women are constantly forced to advocate for more equitable pay. Just because the WNBA is younger than its NBA counterpart and its revenues haven’t yet reached NBA levels doesn’t mean women should be saddled with them. unfair and unfair revenue sharing agreements. In Fact, WNBA Athletes Aren’t Asking for Multi-Million Dollar Contracts, Claims asking is fairness. The NBA paid its players between 49 and 51 percent of league revenue, WNBA players took home a maximum by 22.8 percent.
“As athletes, we have to fight. As women, we have to fight…And we need more people at our table to fight alongside us.”
-Skylar Diggins-Smith
Analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families reveals that men make up the vast majority of athletes, compromising 87 percent of workers who report being athletes or sports competitors. Among these athletes, women typically report earning $28,329 per year, just 70% of what their male counterparts earn ($40,188).
Additionally, our analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families shows that women across diverse sectors earn just 78 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men. This wage gap amounts to more than $11,000 for a woman over the course of a year, costing all women more than $1.6 trillion in salary each year.
For women of color and women with disabilities – who face additional systemic barriers to employment equity and economic growth – the wage gap is even worse: Compared to non-Hispanic white men, black women typically receive just 66 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic white men. Latinas are typically paid just 52 cents. Native American women typically received only 55 cents. And Asian American, Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women typically receive 80 cents.
Black women wear makeup more than half WNBA players. Not only are WNBA players subject to lower salaries based on gender, but they are also subject to racism, and much more.
The impact of inequitable compensation in the WNBA is undeniable. We know all too well the tragic story of Britney Griner who went to play basketball in Russiabecause she was paid so little as a WNBA athlete in the United States. This decision led to her being painfully imprisoned in Russia for almost a year. No player should have to risk their lives or seek work in unsafe places just to close the wage gap.
It is clear that the league has the capacity to make the necessary changes. For example, news recently broke that the WNBA would now charter private planes for players — even though that’s been the norm for years for the NBA. THE change has come just after a video surfaced of Caitlin Clark at the Dallas airport with a crowd of cheering fans following her.
The time has come to recognize and value women in sport. It is essential to recognize that it is not just about compensation, but also about the principle itself: female athletes deserve fairness.
Credits: The author would like to thank Gail Zuagar, Molly Kozlowski, Amaya Smith, Katherine Gallagher Robbins, and Mettabel Law for their contributions.
Methodological note: The athlete wage gap is based on 2019-2022 American Community Survey data from IPUMS (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). The figures represent the median annual earnings of workers who report their primary occupation as an athlete or sports competitor among people who reported working last year and having positive earnings. THE “the main occupation is the one that allows the person to earn the most money; if respondents were unsure, they were asked which one they spent the most time on.” If we limit ourselves to athletes who work at least half the year (26 weeks or more), women report a median annual income of $45,000, or only 87% of men’s income ($51,670). There is insufficient data to examine wage gaps for women of color.
