All The Arguments You Need: Equal playing field? Why are women sports persons paid less?
All The Arguments You Need: The gender pay gap in sports looks into the existing situation of unequal pay in sports, particularly for female athletes who do not receive equal revenue compared to their counterparts, depending on the nature of the sport. But, According to the research conducted by BBC, “a total of 83% of sports now reward men and women equally”. However, it does not indicate that the huge gap in sports has narrowed or disappeared. In 2018, Forbes released the list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes which included all male athletes. A similar situation occurred in 2017 when the only female athlete to be featured was tennis player Serena Williams ranked No.56.
Billie Jean King was the first person to have brought awareness to the issue of unequal pay in the early 1970s, when she was paid $2,900 less than her male counterpart at the Italian Open.
Factors affecting the revenue of the women sportspersons
Except for prize money, there are a few factors that affect the income of female athletes including both internal and external factors.
Endorsement contracts
It is seen that male sports attract far more viewership than women’s sports. The majority of sports are also dominated by male counterparts.
As a result, there are fewer chances for female athletes to negotiate endorsement deals. If an assumption is made that a male and female athlete receives equal prize money, the top male athletes still earn more due to better sponsorship and endorsement deals.
Media coverage
Media coverage from News reports, television (TV) programs, and social media articles not only enhances the popularity of athletes but also reveals the commercial nature of sports. In this context, male sports have higher production values. The economic logic is that the viewership determines the commercial value of a sport and the media producers desire to attract more audiences to make profits. Despite the greatly increased participation of women in sports globally, media coverage of female athletes has remained unchanged. It has been brought to light that the visibility of women’s sports in the media is necessary for its growth and is a determining factor in closing the gender pay gap.
Economic return
In research that has studied over 460 occupations, athletes have the worst gender pay gap. The average female athlete acquires $15,232 in comparison to male athletes who make $38,008 on average which is a 149.5% increase.
Economic elements also have an effect on pay equity within sports. In 2018, the WNBA team attracted only 7,716 fans per game, which was far less than the fans attracted by NBA teams per game. Female teams attracted fewer fans compared to male teams, and this indicates that female teams sold fewer tickets and hence generated less revenue.
In the field of cricket, according to the BCCI pay structure, the highest grade (A+) men international cricketer is set to bag Rs 7 crore in annual salary, while cricketers in grades A, B, and C will get Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore, and Rs 1 crore, respectively.
Meanwhile, the highest grade international women cricketers are entitled to get only Rs 50 lakh in annual salary, while women cricketers in Grade B and C will have Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.
The disparity is not just confined to India but is also a global phenomenon plaguing the sport.
Recently, the Table Tennis Federation of India decided to give the same pay or prize money to women as their counterparts in tournaments and competitions.
Like in Table Tennis, all badminton tournaments, including India’s premier event, the India Open, have decided to give equal prize money to winners in the men’s and women’s categories.
In hockey, daily allowances and sponsorships are set to be equally split for players in the national camp. However, the domestic level scenario still needs changes.
There is still a long way to go to reach the pay parity. If sports authorities look at creating a favorable environment and making sports accessible to more and more females, it can be a step in the right direction towards pay parity.