Gender Pay Gap in Basketball
A Comparison of WNBA and NBA Players
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v14i1.8440Keywords:
Gender pay gap, Basketball players, Pay discrimination, Wage gapAbstract
The gender pay gap is a persistent and unjust disparity in earnings between men and women performing similar roles. This research paper examines the gender pay gap in basketball, focusing on the United States National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA); aiming to determine the impact of gender on athlete earnings. The literature review presented in this paper, delves into theories like the human capital model and labour market discrimination, highlighting the broader presence of wage disparity across numerous industries. The review also identifies sponsorship, media coverage, and audience demand as factors that contribute to the sports industry's gender pay gap. To conduct the primary research, statistical analysis of salary data spanning the years 2020 to 2023 of select teams from both the NBA and WNBA was conducted. As hypothesized, they revealed significant differences in average salaries between male and female players. Notably, positive trends in narrowing the gap in the earnings of WNBA players were also observed, especially after a new collective bargaining agreement in 2020. The study underscores the persistent gender pay disparity in basketball and emphasis the need for initiatives to promote gender equality in sports and society at large.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Adá Lameiras, A. and Rodríguez-Castro, Y. (2020). The presence of female athletes and non-athletes on sports media Twitter. Feminist Media Studies, 21(6), pp.1–18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1732439.
ALobaid, A. M., Gosling, C. M., Khasawneh, E., McKenna, L., & Williams, B. (2020). Challenges Faced by Female Healthcare Professionals in the Workforce: A Scoping Review. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 13, 681–691. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S254922
Becker, G.S. (1971). The Economics of Discrimination. 2nd ed. The University Of Chicago Press.
Becker, G.S. (1985). Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor. Journal of Labor Economics, 3(1.2), pp.S33–S58. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/298075.
Bergmann, B.R. (1974). Occupational Segregation, Wages and Profits When Employers Discriminate by Race or Sex. Eastern Economic Journal, [online] 1(2), pp.103–110. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40315472.
Berri, D. (2018). WNBA Players Are Simply Asking For A Greater Share Of WNBA Revenues. [online] Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidberri/2018/09/04/what-wnba-players-want/?sh=4be6f9b333eb
Brennan, A. (2016). Which Sports Have the Largest and Smallest Pay Gaps? [online] Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbrennan/2016/05/05/the-pay-discrimination-in-sports-we-wi sh-didnt-exist-will-only-dissipate-with-womens-leadership/?sh=3ea39b57919d [Accessed 20 Sep. 2023].
Chin, S., Krivkovich, A., & Nadeau, M. C. (2018, September 6). Closing the gap: Leadership perspectives on promoting women in financial services. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/closing-the-gap-leadership-perspectives-on-promoting-women-in-financial-services
Cooky, C., Messner, M.A. and Musto, M. (2015). ‘It’s Dude Time!’ Communication & Sport, 3(3), pp.261–287. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479515588761.
Doering, L., & Thébaud, S. (2017). The Effects of Gendered Occupational Roles on Men’s and Women’s Workplace Authority: Evidence from Microfinance. American Sociological Review, 82(3), 542-567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417703087
Farrell, W. (2005). Why Men Earn More. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Greer, J.D. and Jones, A.H. (2023). A Level Playing Field? : Audience Perceptions of Male and Female Sports Analysts. [online] Cgscholar.com. Available at: https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/a-level-playing-field [Accessed 20 Sep. 2023].
Grybaite, V. (2006). Analysis of theoretical approaches to gender pay gap. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 7(2), pp.85–91. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/16111699.2006.9636127.
International Labour Office (2019). Women in Business and Management : The Business Case for Change. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Lamoureux, A. (2012). How the Media Portrays Female Athletes. [online] How the Media Portrays Female Athletes. Available at: https://aimeelamoureux.wordpress.com/.
Lee, P., Westcott, K., Wray, I., & Raviprakash, S. (2020, December 7). Women’s sports revenue and monetization. Deloitte Insights. https://www2.deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2021/womens-sports-revenue.html
Mincer, J. and Polachek, S. (1974). Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women.
Journal of Political Economy, 82(2, Part 2), pp.S76–S108. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/260293.
Olin, A. (2021). Houston is a top city for women in tech. Gender equity will make it better. | Kinder Institute for Urban Research. [online] Kinder Institute for Urban Research | Rice University. Available at:
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/houston-top-city-women-tech-gender-equity-will-make-it-bette r.
Perasso, V. (2017). 100 Women: Is the gender pay gap in sport really closing? BBC News. [online] 23 Oct. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-41685042.
Phelps, E.S. (1972). The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism. The American Economic Review, [online] 62(4), pp.659–661. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1806107.
Shah, K. (2023). The great divide – exploring the gender gap in sports viewership. [online] business.yougov.com. Available at:
https://business.yougov.com/content/7863-the-great-divide-exploring-gender-gap-in-sports-view ership.
Thompson, A. and Kopczyk, K. (2017). Women’s Sport Week 2017: Gender prize money gap narrowing, new study shows. BBC Sport. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/40299469.
University of Minnesota Tucker Center (2013). Media Coverage & Female Athletes | Media Coverage and Female Athletes. [online] TPT Video. Available at: https://video.tpt.org/video/tpt-co-productions-media-coverage-female-athletes/.
University of Oxford (2021). GENDER PAY GAP REPORT. [online] Available at: https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/files/genderpaygapreport2023finalpdf#:~:text=The%20median%20gen der%20pay%20gap [Accessed 21 Sep. 2023].
Wilson, C., & Showalter, A. (2016, February 16). These 25 jobs have the worst gender pay gap. TIME. https://time.com/4224473/gender-pay-gap-worst-jobs/
WNBPA (2019). Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) – WNBPA. [online] Wnbpa.com. Available at: https://wnbpa.com/cba/.
Women in sport (2011). Research Report: Big Deal? The Case for Commercial Investment in Women’s Sport. [online] Women in Sport. Available at: https://womeninsport.org/resource/big-deal-case-commercial-investment-womens-sport/.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2025 Prisha Rajgarhia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
