First and foremost, I am a strong advocate or equal pay for equal work. I have always been and have actively corrected all such inequities in my few positions of administration in my professional career, period.
At the same time, I do not support phony equality either. Just because someone says it is equal does not make it so. For example, I posted the following on Facebook recently:
US Women’s Soccer won pay equality with US Men’s Soccer despite less revenue, game attendance, TV viewership, etc., etc.
Congratulations I am sure that next the WNBA will get pay equity with the NBA😂👍
As one might guess, the feedback was quite active. I was reminded of just how successful on the pitch Women’s Soccer has been in relationship to Men’s Soccer, thus justifying their salaries being raised to the level of the Men’s Soccer salaries. It was even mentioned how they have been playing to larger crowds in several venues.
My remark was that it was about money and money only. Women’s Soccer, for better or worse, does not generate anywhere near as much revenue as Men’s Soccer. That is based on World viewership, attendance, media revenue, merchandise revenue, sponsorship, etc. In other words, it is “all about the Benjamin’s”. That really go nowhere; there were other reasons to define equal. I pretty much agreed to disagree.
However, I did get one final remark in defense of the discussion I had been having with another person. It concluded with “Equal Pay for Equal Work”. That got me: My response was essentially:
If Men and Women Athletes are truly equal, why do they have separate teams?
Strangely, I got no response.
Footnote:
During the conversation: because I had thrown out the WNBA as an example of the ludicrousness of equal pay, I was informed of the fact that the WNBA players only get around 20% of the revenue, while the NBA players get around 50% of the revenue. That is wrong, damned wrong and should be corrected immediately. While it would be impossible to justify or support equal dollars, the WNBA do deserve equal treatment by their league.
