Basketball: The Truth Behind the Wage Gap
Of course, we have our all-time basketball greats like Stephen Curry, Lebron James, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (who are all still active in the league), but how many casual National Basketball Association (NBA) fans actually know who Kyle Kuzma is? If you were to ask me, I would say many have not even heard of his name, but he’s actually making millions more than an entire organization of professional players combined. Kyle Kuzma’s salary for the 2022–2023 NBA season will be higher than the entire Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) salary from last year. Yes, you heard me right…the entire WNBA. A single man, unheard of to many, is making millions more than an entire women’s organization. The NBA is continuing to give its players the contracts they desire, while the WNBA is keeping its players’ pay in check. This trend has been continuing ever since the WNBA was first inducted. Does the economic state of this world find no harm in these drastically contrasting numbers?
Kyle Kuzma will be making a whopping 13 million dollars in the upcoming season, whereas the entire WNBA earned only 11 million dollars last year. Experience and popularity can affect the large pay gap between men and women in professional basketball leagues.
For example, The large gap in the number of games, number of years of experience, and number of teams play a significant part in a woman basketball player’s pay. The NBA is 75 years old, while the WNBA is only 25. The NBA has 30 teams, while the WNBA has only 12. There are 82 NBA games in a season, while the WNBA has only 36. The WNBA sells cheaper tickets to increase the number of tickets they sell. The NBA’s average ticket price is between $51 to $89; the WNBA’s is $17. Also, there are far fewer WNBA fans than NBA fans that view or go to each game. NBA games average 2 million TV viewers per game; WNBA games average 246,000 viewers. The NBA’s average attendance is 17,760, the WNBA’s is 6,535. Mathematically speaking, would it make sense to make WNBA players’ pay consistent with NBA players’ pay? If all the numbers are consistent, then there is a justified argument to make that women should be paid the same amount as men in the professional league, but in every aspect, the WNBA cannot reach the NBA’s standards.
However, WNBA players are constantly pushing for a bigger salary and demanding the league make some changes. Economically speaking, the WNBA cannot handle paying its players more because the league will not be economically successful. Paying its players more means less money will be involved in the business side of the WNBA, but the WNBA cannot afford to take that loss until it can stand on its own. The NBA is a lot more experienced in handling and distributing money because it has been around for much longer and has been much more stable than the WNBA. In fact, the NBA will probably have to end up lending money to the WNBA, in order to sustain its league, if the league does end up giving a bigger cut to its players.
Because the WNBA does not make as much as the NBA from viewership and attendance, it cannot generate any interest or revenue for itself and for its players. Yet, there are still people arguing about the ethics of this situation without understanding the numbers behind the madness. The WNBA cannot afford to just hand out money to its players without knowing the economic consequences of it. Although women in the WNBA would very much appreciate a treat that could increase their pay to even out the wage gap, its league cannot afford to make this adjustment because of the difference in revenue and earnings caused by the contrasting numbers between the NBA and itself.
