Brittney Griner’s Detainment Highlights Pay Inequity in the U.S.

Brittney Griner’s Detainment Highlights Pay Inequity in the U.S. Author: Kynnedi Taylor-Henry

Prior to her arrest at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner was a professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury and a seven-time WNBA all-star. While playing professionally in the United States, Griner spent ten of those years playing overseas for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg to increase her earnings. On July 7, 2022, Griner plead guilty to charges for transporting her vape cartridges containing less than one gram of hashish oil through a Russian airport, all without being offered an explanation of her rights nor access to lawyers1.

Before her detainment, there were a few Americans detained in Russia for similar reasons to Griner’s charge一Paul Whelan, former Marine, and Mark Vogel, former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 2, 3. In Russia’s purview, Griner is a convenient bargaining chip used to reclaim infamous war criminal Viktor Bout. Compared to other American detainees in Russia, Griner’s celebrity puts greater pressure on America to get her out of Russia, which Russia uses to their advantage. On August 4, 2022, Russia’s court sentenced Griner to serve nine and a half years in prison.4 To best understand her motivation for traveling to Russia to play basketball, we must draw acute attention to a decades-old issue of pay inequity in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The pay gap between men and women playing professional basketball happens to be one of the largest pay inequities in U.S. history一an issue for women since the early 20th century.5 According to the Boston Globe, the minimum pay of an NBA player with one year’s experience is projected at $1.637 million, higher than the salary budget of an entire WNBA team, which is capped at 1.4 million. WNBA players are offered a measly salary of $60,471 and a maximum salary of $228,094 receiving only 20 to 30 percent of league revenue6, 7. BallinEurope reports, “the average salary for a female American player with no WNBA experience in the top leagues abroad (Spain, Italy, France, Russia) was about 5,000-6,000 EUR a month.”8 Top players of the WNBA are estimated to be underpaid by $800,000.9

1

https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/brittney-griner-situation-explained-russia-requests-convicted-murderer-in-pri soner-swap-per-report/ 2

https://europenewsok.com/2022/07/28/the-family-says-the-american-teachers-letters-were-censored-in-a-russian-pri son/ 3 https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/paul-whelan-left-behind-statement/index.html 4 https://www.reuters.com/world/basketball-star-brittney-griner-awaits-fate-russia-drugs-trial-2022-08-03/ 5

https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/ 6 https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092677483/brittney-griner-russia-detention-wnba-nba-pay-gap 7 https://queenballers.club/basketball/wnba-salary 8 https://www.ballineurope.com/how-much-is-really-in-womens-basketball/ 9 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/09/171089/sports-gender-pay-gap-history

The financial status of the WNBA not only contributes to pay inequity of its players but also decreases its ability to expand. Exacerbating the pay inequity experienced by WNBA players, the WNBA can only afford to have 144 players total一12 teams with 12 slots each.10 Due to the financial state of the WNBA, some teams are not able to fill all 12 slots with talented players. In addition to this, leaders of the WNBA are forced to make cuts each year without regard to the talent, position, or prominence of a player.

With complaints from figureheads of the NBA, there seems to be little to no action for helping the WNBA increase viewership and fan turnout – integral components that increase profit.

Executives of the NBA express concerns about the talent, stamina, and fan base of the WNBA as reasons why WNBA players should not get paid as much as NBA players. To add to the lower turnout of WNBA games, Adam Silver, the current NBA commissioner, admitted to not promoting the WNBA enough to launch it successfully. The lack of economic viability for women playing in the WNBA has caused players to join professional leagues overseas. Consequently, Brittney Griner simply sought out a way to decrease the effects of the pay inequity she has been subjected to. Although Griner and players of the WNBA are not the first women to suffer the effects of pay inequity, their hardships are indicative of how dire it is for our leaders to foster a nation that supports gender parity. Because the U.S. is a major global leader, we must revolutionize the global view and value of women and identify solutions that will close the gender pay gap in the U.S.

10

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/05/the-wnba-desperately-needs-to-expand-in-so-many-different-ways-and-now-is-theperfect-time-to-do-it