Female athletes get paid less because, in general, the professional sports leagues that female athletes are involved with have smaller audiences and generate a lot less revenue than male professional sports leagues.
Because of this fact, professional male athletes not only receive higher salaries on average, but they also receive more additional income from sponsorship and endorsem*nt deals from large athletic companies and big brands across the board.
These companies pay male athletes more because they feel these athletes are more marketable due to having larger fan bases than female athletes. Many think that the pay difference between female and male athletes is a result of misogyny. While this might be true in certain instances, it does not take into account the pure economics of the issue.
For example, a professional female basketball player in the WNBA earns an average salary of around $100,000 per year, while a male professional basketball player in the NBA earns an average salary of $7 million per year.
There is no denying that most female players put in just as much effort as their male counterparts, making this seem unfair. However, the WNBA actually loses an average of $10 million per year, while the NBA grosses $8 billion a year in profit. This means that there is more money available to pay NBA players than there is to pay WNBA players.
