Opinion: Fair play equals higher pay for female athletes

David Lynch: Sports Reporter

This year, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) started its inaugural season.

Since the league’s first game on New Year’s Day, they have set four records for attendance at a professional women’s hockey game.

Concurrently, women’s basketball has seen a rise in popularity in recent years.

With college stars like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese, women’s collegiate basketball may be more popular than men’s.

This season, for the first time, the women’s March Madness final had more viewers than the men’s, ESPN said.

The women’s game had 18.7 million viewers, while the men’s game drew 14.8 million viewers.

And, the final four matchup between Iowa and UConn was the second most-watched game in ESPN history, not including football.

With North American Women’s sports viewership at an all-time high, it’s time to address the issue that has plagued professional women’s sports since its start. Pay.

In the PWHL, the average yearly salary for a player is US$55,000 a year, according to the PWHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

In the National Hockey League (NHL) CBA, the minimum salary for an NHL player is $750,000 a year.

When the two numbers are compared, it’s clear that there is a problem.

When the highest-paid PWHL player makes just under 10 per cent of the lowest NHL contract, per year, that’s not a good look.

But, the PWHL is only in its inaugural season. There is plenty of time for contracts to increase.

A league that may give hope for significant salary increases in the PWHL is the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

While their salaries also don’t compare well to the men’s National Basketball Association (NBA), recent salary increases give hope to women’s sports.

Spotrac, a website tracking sports salaries said in the WNBA, the highest salary this season is $241,984. That’s a major increase even from 2019, when the highest salary was $127,500.

But it still looks bad compared to the NBA, where the league minimum annual salary in the CBA is US$1.1 million.

Even with the major increases, many top female athletes are staying the full four years in college before turning pro.

This is an effect of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal in

U.S. college sports, signed in June of 2021.

This deal means that college athletes can make money while in college and often make more than if they were professional athletes.

Clark, arguably one of the greatest college basketball players in history, was making an estimated $3.1 million from her NIL deals a Business Insider article said.

In the WNBA CBA, rookies picked in the top four of the draft this off-season will be able to make $76,535 in their first pro season. Clark is highly expected to be the first overall pick in the draft.

But, there may be some promise.

Rap star Ice-Cube’s basketball league Big3 offered Clark a $5 million contract to play for them, while also letting her play in the WNBA, he confirmed in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Even though it may be more of a stunt, it shows interest in women’s sports is rising, and leagues need to get serious about paying female athletes like the stars they are.