Many in the social justice tribe clutched their pearls and feigned outrage this week over the leaked details of basketball phenom Caitlin Clark’s paltry salary — compared to NBA players — after she was drafted by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever on Monday night. They claimed sexism. They claimed misogyny. They blamed everyone and everything except the people who were largely responsible for this salary discrepancy: themselves.
For example, consider a post from the 1619 Project author, Nikole Hannah-Jones. A regular purveyor of hyperbolic hysteria and agenda-driven misinformation, Hannah-Jones jumped into the social media conversation regarding WNBA salaries. She said that “women deserve better.”
“Honestly, y’all should be embarrassed for even posting this salary,” Hannah-Jones said. “Women deserve better.”
Yet, a quick glance at her X profile will show that, unless I missed a significant portion of her posts, Hannah-Jones rarely, if ever, posts about the WNBA product. If women deserve better, they are failing to achieve it because of people like Hannah-Jones.
Same thing with NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. The millionaire quarterback posted on his X account that, “These ladies deserve so much more … Praying for the day.” But again, looking at Wilson’s social media account, unless I missed a huge segment of his posts, he rarely, if ever, mentioned anything about the WNBA. And, if I had to guess, Wilson, like Hannah-Jones, doesn’t watch or attend many games and doesn’t spend much money on WNBA merchandise.
Here is the thing: WNBA players should make less than male players. Now before you go running and crying “misogyny” or that I am a weapon of the patriarchy, it’s important to know how and why professional athletes get the enormous salaries that they do. And, contrary to what many have insinuated, there is no “great professional athlete salary god” who determines the paychecks.
The salaries of professional athletes are largely predicated on each league’s revenue streams. This is true whether the athletes are male or female. The more money a league generates, the higher the salaries for each player in that league. The revenue is generated mainly through television network contracts, which are based on the ratings of how many people watch the product. The WNBA has been around since 1996 and played its first season in 1997. For 27 years, it usually has had abysmal ratings.
In recent years, however, ratings and game attendance have increased. Nevertheless, even with the increase, those metrics still pale in comparison to most men’s professional sports leagues. However, given the hype and attention to Caitlin Clark the last two years, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think this would continue in the WNBA. However, it remains to be seen whether that trend ultimately continues and is sustainable.
For over a generation, most people have not been tuning in to the WNBA product. That’s not the fault of the patriarchy or misogyny. That’s the fault of men and women who are complaining about WNBA salaries today but didn’t watch WNBA games yesterday.
As such, women’s basketball players do not earn as much as men’s basketball players — and rightfully so. As for the people complaining about these paychecks, everyone should ask them several simple questions:
How many WNBA games do they go to each year?
How much money do they spend each year on paraphernalia?
How many WNBA games do they watch on television each year?
How many social media posts do they make about WNBA games or players?
Anytime a person sees or hears someone complaining about WNBA salaries, stating how unfair it is, or claiming it’s sexist or a result of “the patriarchy,” ask that person the above questions. Their reply will likely be silence.
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It will be a hard pill for some people to swallow, but WNBA players should be making significantly less than NBA players until they start drawing audiences as big as the men do. Instead of feigning outrage, anyone who thinks otherwise should start spending money on WNBA merchandise to increase the league’s revenue streams. This way, the allegedly underpaid players would start making more.
If such people are not willing to do that, then they should not complain about WNBA players making less money.