The specter of the “gender pay gap” is gaining national attention again.
This time, female professional athletes are whining about not being paid as much as their male counterparts. They claim that the U.S. women’s team is more successful than the men’s soccer team and they generate more revenue.
“Every player at this World Cup put on the most incredible show that you could ever ask for. We can’t do anything more…”
Megan Rapinoe used her post-win World Cup press conference to demand wage equality https://t.co/mFa3jq67hC pic.twitter.com/zha37W22st
— CNN (@CNN) July 8, 2019
Except… that’s not exactly right.
This isn’t even one of those posts about the gender pay gap being a myth. (Although, this one is.)
Matt Walsh over at The Daily Wire, explains that female athletes are actually being overpaid.
First, the argument that they’re “better” than the men is disingenuous. If the women’s team played the men’s team, you’d see a ridiculously high-scoring game — for the men. A few years ago, the women’s team couldn’t beat a group of 13 and 14-year old boys, I doubt that they’d be able to beat the professional men’s team.
Walsh then says that the alleged “pay gap” is a bit of a 3-card Monty game, too. U.S. men’s soccer has indeed earned more revenue than women’s soccer, and that has now reversed slightly, but that only takes into account ticket sales, and not other big money-makers like TV deals and merchandise sales. Interestingly, the higher-tiered male and female players in the U.S. make almost the same amount. The “pay gap” in U.S. soccer widens with lower-tier players.
According to figures provided by U.S. Soccer, since 2008 it has paid 12 players at least $1 million. Six of those players were men, and six were women. And the women hold their own near the top of the pay scale; the best-paid woman made about $1.2 million from 2008 to 2015, while the top man made $1.4 million in the same period. Some women in the top 10 even made more than their male counterparts over those years.
Source: New York Times
The thing that is getting everyone upset is the payouts from the World Cup because it looks like a massive pay gap. It appears that men make ten times what women make. FIFA pays male World Cup players somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million to male players in the World Cup, but female players will make around $30 million.
That looks pretty bad, right?
Well, not if you look at the revenue disparity between men’s soccer and women’s soccer.
As Dwight Jaynes pointed out four years ago after the U.S. women beat Japan to capture the World Cup in Vancouver, there is a big difference in the revenue available to pay the teams. The Women’s World Cup brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%. The 2010 men’s World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players.
The men still pull the World Cup money wagon. The men’s World Cup in Russia generated over $6 billion in revenue, with the participating teams sharing $400 million, less than 7% of revenue. Meanwhile, the Women’s World Cup is expected to earn $131 million for the full four-year cycle 2019-22 and dole out $30 million to the participating teams.
Source: Forbes
So, percentage-wise, the women are making one-and-a-half times what the men make.
Not bad for the team that lost 5-2 to an under-15 boys’ team from Texas, eh?
But the women want to make the same as the men. Unfortunately, that’s roughly 4 times their revenue. How exactly is that going to work? And would men stay at that 7 percent while women make 400 percent of the revenue? That doesn’t seem fair, does it?
Walsh explains that U.S. Women’s team captain, Megan Rapinoe, isn’t demanding 400 times the revenue, but she is suggesting a modest quadrupling of their pay. What is she, a freshman Congresswoman?!
Megan Rapinoe, humble as always, will settle for just a meager quadrupling of their prize money. But $30 million quadrupled is $120 million. That would be close to 100 percent of their revenue. Again: The men only make 7%. Already, the women are earning around 20%. Indeed, if we want to be “fair” and “equal,” we must conclude that the women are overpaid. Or else the men are underpaid. Either way, on an international scale, if there is a gender pay gap, women are the beneficiaries of it.
Source: Daily Wire
One of the most interesting people on Twitter, (and hands-down one of my personal favorites,) Chad Felix Greene, a Senior Contributor at The Federalist, lays out plainly why female athletes don’t make as much.
Female models make 10x what male models make.
It has nothing to do with your sex and everything to do with the product you are selling and who your audience is. https://t.co/nHKu6ApmDU
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 9, 2019
If women cared as much about women's soccer as they do shampoo products, the soccer players would make more money. 🤷♂️
Just as men do not buy magazines for male models but support the NFL to the point players are multimillionaires.
Its not sexism.
Its just business.— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 9, 2019
Women *say* women's sports should be better supported and the players paid equally with men, but they do not actually support any women's sports in enough numbers to make this a reality.
Men's sports dominate because men *pay* to see them in huge numbers.
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 9, 2019
Women in sports are not less dedicated or skillful.
It is not an argument if they 'deserve' pay that reflects their skill.
The issue is the fanbase.
If a critical mass of women paid to watch them on expensive satellite TV, bought the merch, games, tickets etc, it would change.— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 9, 2019
Women, as a group, simply do not seem interested in paying to watch other women play sports. 🤷♂️
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 9, 2019
It looks like she’s working on that, Chad.
USWNT star Megan Rapinoe is the first openly gay woman to pose for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue 🏆 pic.twitter.com/0wVL4Qm9tK
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 8, 2019
Don’t worry, Soccer Ladies, soon, none of it will matter because if things keep chugging along as they have been, there won’t be many biological women playing women’s soccer.
“I was floating on air, when I scored I didn’t know what to do, but after being in a mini state of shock I went to celebrate with the coaching staff, my partner and the fans. #FridayFeeling 🤗https://t.co/jLmm3j6JFc
— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) September 21, 2018
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