Busting Unequal Pay Myth: Sports Edition
Today I saw this infographic on the internet, along with many comments from women habitually citing the “Unequal Pay Myth”:
![Image may contain: 2 people, beard, text that says 'SYMETRA wish Sue Bird 17 Seasons in the WNBA TAEnO LeBron James 4 WNBA Championships 17 Seasons in the NBA 4 NBA Championships 2020 Salary: $215,000 Bonus for winning 2020 Finals: $11,356 2020 Salary: $37.44M Bonus for winning 2020 Finals: $370,000'](https://scontent.fmel8-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p843x403/122234227_4623095164399510_4858195486017109870_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=OlQYqTzEm_gAX8pWBzx&_nc_oc=AQlaaKA-lpH6iN0QSnYZcpuFs_lxR5hhxahSbVIN3EnhhSIIH056sK6kbE28tIk3zVtvmcWJTbIOg-A-eoxltJ0y&_nc_ht=scontent.fmel8-1.fna&tp=6&oh=0783355c0f917533e7bca238c1776c93&oe=5FB789D4)
However, the explanation is brutally simple: athlete compensation is directly correlated with viewership + ticket sales + other relevant factors.. If women want WNBA players to get paid = NBA players, women must support/engage with WNBA = men support/engage with NBA
Really, women can only blame themselves for not supporting women’s sports to the same extent men support men’s sports 🤷♂️ Let’s look at the numbers:
2020 NBA Grand Final: Lakers V Heat: 8.9M average viewers
2020 WNBA Grand Final: Storm V Aces: 570K average viewers
Why didnt all women advocating equal pay watch/support the WNBA game? I can tell you if WNBA matches had 50M average viewers, Sue Bird would be getting paid more than James Lebron!
Unequal Pay Myth: busted .. Pay is correlated with viewership/engagement/support, not arbitrary unfairness