WNBA Players Need Higher Salaries

It is a well known fact that females have been underpaid for quite some time. We see this in the workplace multiple times where male and female workers have the same job, but men  get paid higher than women. This even happens in professional sports such as the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

In 2019, rookies in the WNBA were paid 41,000. This may seem like a lot but in actuality it’s very low for any job. In Los Angeles, the average income for a person a year is 55,000. Looking at this a person who works at an office is making more than a professional basketball player. Keep in mind that’s a rookie salary, but if we turn to the National Basketball Association (NBA) a rookie in the draft will make around 1 million without even playing. This means that one NBA rookie is making the salary of 25 WNBA rookies! 

If we want to compare the salaries of the highest WNBA player and the highest paid NBA player its not even comparable. The highest paid WNBA player earned 113,500 dollars whereas in the NBA the highest paid player made 26 million and that was Steph Curry. 

All in all, WNBA players are working hard, yet their paycheck does not reflect it. This could be because it’s not as popular to watch or because it hasn’t been around long enough. Regardless, the players are putting in the work and are getting underpaid.