Let us start with some facts:
- Women get paid than men for the same or comparable jobs.
- Minorities get paid less than whites for the same or comparable jobs.
- Women and minorities are passed over for hiring and promotions in favor of white men who are less qualified.
- Gender and race are not the only people discriminated against. It can be appearance, religion, or other factors.
Thus, starting out any conversation, I usually fall automatically into the camp of supporting the call for women’s pay equity. It is only fair and it is only right.
Sometimes I am not. That is when the disparity is regarding Men and Women professional athletes. While I agree that the women may not be paid very well, in fact, often pretty poorly, and I agree that the reason that they are paid that bad because they are women, it is not specifically a fight to be fought for Women’s Equality.
Give me a break. It is about revenue and revenue only. The two most recent examples I remember being represented were:
- The pay disparity between Sue Bird of the WNBA and LeBron James of the NBA. While they had comparable years and titles, Sue Bird is making a mere fraction of the money LeBron James makes.
- The pay disparity between the United States Men’s and Women’s World Cup Soccer Team members. Megan Rapinoe spoke to Congress and had a photo-op with the President on Pay Equality Day. She made the case that the “fill stadiums”, yet they are still paid less.
In both of those cases, while there is a great hue and cry there is no touch to reality. It is about revenue. How many butts are in the seats and how many butts are in front of the televisions. Period. They get paid less because not as many people care about watching them. While they may fill venues in some cases; generally speaking they do not. And, they do not generate any where near the television and broadcast revenue that their men’s counterparts do. Sponsorship. Yeh, you have a point. But how many kids are buying LeBron James’ kicks and how many are buying Sue Bird’s. Once again, simple mathematics.
You think I am wrong? Try me. I notice that there was no comparisons regarding Men’s versus Women’s professional figure skating or Men’s versus Women’s profession tennis. Why? Because the Women’s version of the sport is as popular or more popular than the Men’s version. Guess what. The pay shows.
- Six of the ten highest paid professional figure skaters in the world are women.
- When we get to professional tennis; Internationally: Men make slightly more than Women on average; United States: Women make more than Men. In any case, the pay seems comparable. Given that a tennis match for women is Best of 3 and men is Best of 5, one could argue that women make more than men across the board.
So you do not notice that there were no figure skates or professional tennis players speaking before Congress on Pay Equity Day. Before you say it, I am aware that there was a fight many years ago for pay equity in Women’s Tennis. They won. Why? Because of revenue. Once again; pure and simple.
Am I naïve enough to believe that when the revenue increases the pay for Women athletes will automatically increase. Not on your life. Just as it has happened in Men’s athletics, there will be strikes and contract negotiations and compromises to get the money they want and deserve. It is as it should be. But when you are not bringing in the money you are not in the position to ask for it because you think you “deserve” it.
It is not like we are talking about an architect, an engineer, a salesperson, a programmer, or any other position where there are comparables. Professional athletes are unique. They are selling their image and ability as an unique quantity and it is based solely on what the market is willing to pay for it at that point in time. It is not based upon comparable worth because there is no comparable worth. It is much like an actor (gender neutral). They should be paid based solely on how many tickets their movies sell or how much revenue their TV show generates. Generally speaking, that is how it should be.
So if you are going to fight for equal pay, AND YOU SHOULD, fight a fight you can and should win. Fights like this are foolish when looked at from afar. It is as if you are saying that people should be forced to watch an hour of Women’s Basketball (Soccer) for every hour of Men’s Basketball (Soccer) in the hopes that both will be as popular. Not happening.
Spend you time on getting equal pay for women who are getting shafted by not being paid as much as their male counterparts in the marketplace where the field is the same.
