Salaries comparision?

When it comes to player salaries, WNBA is a jokeTiffany Gibson
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Sports
PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 2 next > With last Wednesday's Women's National Basketball Association draft completed, several female athletes were given a new city to familiarize themselves with, new teammates, fame and a contract offering them $44,000 per year for the first four draft picks.
When comparing this amount to the sum male athletes receive in their NBA rookie year, it's not even a fourth of their salaries. Getting paid to play the game they love is a dream come true for many, but who has the right to balance paychecks based on gender?

As of 2007, the yearly salary given to rookie athletes in the NBA ranged from $3 million to $1 million, while women in the bottom picks were given an insulting sum of $32,000. Given the WNBA salary statistics, this hardly seems fair considering both genders are athletes whether or not one happens to have any extra chromosome.

Men's basketball may be more appealing and profitable, but with recent talents such as Candace Parker and the return of Lisa Leslie playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, ticket prices are guaranteed to soar for the same reason why the Lady Vols women's basketball team is more profitable than the men's.

Women athletes playing overseas are paid around $500,000, which is a huge improvement than the salaries offered in the WNBA. Furthermore living in a society where money equals power, men with extraordinary talents would seek the same opportunity overseas if they were not awarded the amount they wanted upon request.

Basically, women athletes do not have a choice in the matter; therefore, they are thankful for what they receive, but the fact that they put in the same amount of work as men and are disregarded for their efforts does not reflect well on the WNBA. Women's basketball has come a long way since 1996, but with unfair salaries being offered to its athletes, it only shows that the sport has even more progress to make.