The Gender Wage Gap In Sports II: WNBA

When we last discussed the gender wage gap in sports, we discussed the women's national soccer team. Today we're on the court talking basketball. The NBA is usually referred to as one of the top 3 sports in America. The other two? Baseball and of course, the American game itself, Football. Basketball season gets a lot of attention on media outlets such as ESPN, FOX Sports, etc. Between the draft, to off-season acquisitions and such, the NBA is busy all year long.

On the other side of the court (like wayyyy off to the other side) stands the WNBA. If you couldn't make out the acronym, the WNBA stands for Women's National Basketball Association, and while these women train, injure, and rehabilitate like men in the NBA, they do have one BIG difference.

It's the gender wage gap once again. It's not going away.

For WNBA Superstar Nneka Ogwumike, the gender wage gap doesn't allow her to simply be a basketball star as she should be. In fact, even though Nneka makes more than most players in the league, she still plays overseas during the off-season to earn. And most players actually earn the bulk of their income on the side.

Nneka is a basketball superstar; the Los Angeles Sparks player made the winning shot to clinch the championship for her team last season. But when it comes to her income, she has to make ends meet!

Do you think LeBron James or Steph Curry need supplemental income? I'll let you look that one up.

It's infuriating. Even as an MVP in her own right, her talents are rewarded with the bare minimum. The average salary in the WNBA starts at $50,000 and caps out at $110,000. In comparison, men start on average at an estimated $560,000.

To say there's a lot of work to be done in bridging the gender wage gap would be an embarrassing understatement.

To earn extra cash, Ogwumike says she makes her living playing basketball in Russia, but many players also have started their own businesses and the majority of these women have degrees. Educated women who are playing a sport for passion and love of the game, and yet their compensation for their efforts is nothing in comparison to the rewards men receive. NBA players are likely to make 3x more in a starting salary than one WNBA player would at the beginning OR end of her career for that matter. How does that make sense to anyone?