Pro Sports Wage Gap for Women

Guest: Nancy Lough, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic each got $3.8 million for winning the US Open over the weekend. Wimbledon also awards equal prize money to male and female winners. But tennis is unusual in professional sports. The winner’s prize for women in major golf tournaments like the British Open or US Open is less than half what the men win. The US Women’s Soccer Team has won far more World Cup titles and Olympic gold medals than their male counterparts – and the women even bring in more profits for US Soccer - yet the women get paid less than the men. Over on the basketball court, the minimum salary for an NBA player is $838,000. That’s eight times what the very highest WNBA player earns.